Darkside
by pheonixlord2004
Summary: Formerly Heaven and Hell: (OC)Pheonix's story as he tries to bring down Robotnik and discover the truth behind his mysterious past, this storied a real trip with some twisting plots woven together, so R&R people...seriously
1. Who I Am

I have no idea who I am, or where I came from; more to the point how I woke up in the middle of the mobian dessert sitting next to a broken down half- track transport vehicle. I looked up and the blazing heat of the sun met my eyes, which strangely enough was not hot. But I knew it should be. I stood up and brushed off the sand that had collected on my clothes and cloak that I had been wearing and walked around to the front of the vehicle. I saw my reflection in the mirrored front window of the car and looked intently. I was a strange sight indeed; my body was ebony black all over, I looked as if I had been burned, even though it was the color of my skin. My eyes glowed a piercing blue, and my features looked as if they were chiseled with the hand of perfection, my long strands of hair was partially draped over my shoulders and also trailed down my back. I looked at my hands as I pried open the large metallic hood and saw my hands, but what caught my attention most was the claws on the tips of my fingers, I also looked down and saw that I had a tail. That was even more odd; I examined it carefully, it was long and at the end it had what looked like a three-pronged claw protruding from it. I tried moving it around and saw it was like a third hand, that might be useful if I need to grab something when my hands are full I guess.  
  
"What am I supposed to be anyway?" I said out loud, not expecting an answer since no one was around for miles  
  
I stared at the contents under the hood and sighed, knowing that I had no idea what I was doing but began working as if by instinct. As I worked I could see what I looked like floating words and hear a monotone voice in the back of my mind telling me what to do and explaining what everything in the car was and how to fix it. That had been happening a lot lately, whenever I try doing something and don't know what I'm doing. I could see diagrams and explanations of what went where and how the engine was supposed to look like; if someone had seen me they might think I was a professional or something. After a few more adjustments I had finished, at least that is what the words I had seen said. Two words flashed; Task Complete.  
  
"I guess that's good enough for me." I said still talking to nobody as I got into the car and tried to start the engine, which surprisingly turned over and roared to life.  
  
I began driving, as if drawn by something. I had no idea where I was going, only that I wanted to get away from wherever I had been. Then I wondered how I learned to drive in the first place.  
  
Two days passed as I drove, every so often the car would come to a halt and stop. Before I had the chance to wonder why the words came back and told me that the solar cells were charging. I often wonder if I'm delusional seeing and hearing this sort of thing; I don't understand it, and yet I do understand. I sit waiting for what seemed like hours, listening to the wind outside blow harshly and seeing the sand spray across the front window, the sound almost resembling rain.  
  
What was rain I wondered, how did I know about what that sounded like if I can't remember having seen any before?  
  
'Rain' I heard that voice say as it rambled on about the topic, then my mind drifted and was cut off by another message  
  
'Solar cells charged'  
  
Again I started the machine and it came to life, slowly picking up speed since the traction on sand was terrible. I could hear the treads grinding forward slowly while the wheels on the front whirred around at a much quicker pace.  
  
Another day passed and I finally came to a change of scenery, a forest.  
  
'Forest'  
  
Another wave of info flew by in my eyes; forests are filled with trees and animals.  
  
'Trees and animals'  
  
I think I understand that much already, just from looking around. Those words pointed out the obvious a little too much.  
  
I came to a clearing near the edge of a cliff and stepped on the brake bringing the car to a quick stop. I got out and walked over to the edge and saw a city. I looked up and the sky and couldn't see anything but a dark cloud which billowed from the smoke stacks that were dotted all around the city, through the thick haze I could see an endless sea of lights and hear the sounds of machines, music, and.people.  
  
'Casino Zone, entertainment district for the citizens of mobius, created by Dr. Robotonick'  
  
"So that's where I am huh?" I said, trying to confirm with the voice on my location.  
  
'Confirmed'  
  
I smiled a little, knowing that at least I can get an answer from this thing if I needed one, then also thought of who was this doctor that it mentioned.  
  
'Dr. Robotonick, the current ruler of this world'  
  
"Ask a question." I said aloud as I looked to my side and saw a large metal platform jutting out from the cliffs edge.  
  
"What's that there?" I said, waiting for the voice to tell me  
  
'Vehicle elevator; used to move large vehicles from one level to another, suggested direction is down'  
  
"Down we go." I said getting into the car and driving it onto the platform  
  
'Activating locking clamps and descending'  
  
I felt the ground jerk and then start to lower down to the outer ring of the city. I watched as it lowered and saw the skylines of many buildings and then looked down at the people amidst the chaotic surroundings of lights and fast paced music.  
  
The platform made contact with the ground with a large thud. I looked and saw several people turn and eye the vehicle but without much interest.  
  
'Releasing locking clamps'  
  
I drove the car off the platform and into the street, and turned a corner and began to continue on down the street.  
  
"All that dessert travel made me thirsty, how about telling me where I can find something to drink?"  
  
'Irrelevant request'  
  
"I don't care what you think, just tell me."  
  
'Scanning surrounding area, scan complete'  
  
'Scanning? Everything that voice says is confusing'  
  
I turned and saw and building and as if it were a reflex quickly turned and parked the machine in front of the building and got out. I looked around and saw that more people were staring, many more, everyone on the street for that matter. Even the cars that were passing slowed down as they went by. I turned my head as I heard some of the people talking as they continued walking.  
  
"Who is that?" Came a whisper from a crowd that passed  
  
"Look at what he's driving, do you think he works for him?" came another comment from a pointing on looker  
  
They must be talking about me and the car I was standing in front of, I think. I couldn't imagine who 'him' was and decided to ignore it. I continued into the building and to say I was confused as to what I was seeing would have been an understatement. Everywhere, there were flashing lights and there seemed to be females dancing in the nude everywhere.  
  
'I could use an explanation' I thought hoping that the voice could tell me something  
  
'Current location is a strip club, sexual desires are fulfilled for money and.'  
  
'That's was more than I wanted to know you can stop now'  
  
I walked up to the bar and sat down, and got many strange looks and heard more whispers.  
  
"Can I get you something?"  
  
I looked up and saw a gruff looking fellow at the counter, he was a bear creature and mighty large at that.  
  
"I'll have what he's having." I said pointing at another person's drink  
  
The bar tender eyed me strangely and turned to get my drink. I looked around at the 'scenery' and took in my surroundings. I could smell many strange smells; alcohol, smoke from cigars, and hormones. I could see many of the customers most of which were in pairs or in clusters usually mostly women and a few men grabbing at them, in the middle of the room were several platforms where some women were teasing some men waving money around and shouting and laughing.  
  
"Your drink." The barkeeper said as he pushed a glass toward me  
  
"Thanks." I said as I took the glass and tasted it  
  
'Maybe this was irrelevant like that voice said' I thought  
  
It was an extremely foul and bitter taste, and I didn't feel any different after I drank the rest of the glass.  
  
'Now what am I supposed to do?' I thought looking around and saw a strange group sitting in one of the darker corners of the room, which didn't make sense with all the flashing lights; they were starting to get on my nerves. They appeared to be looking at me along with everyone else. I made eye contact with the one in the middle.  
  
'Targets identified as freedom fighters, rebel group known for causing social unrest and inciting revolt against the ruler'  
  
I could see several descriptions pop up and some names with arrows pointing  
  
'Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles; Interesting that was the one looking at me'  
  
'This units primary function is to subdue such unauthorized groups'  
  
'I don't want to do that, they don't even look threatening.'  
  
'Illogical response'  
  
'I still don't care, I'm not going to subdue anyone'  
  
'Primary function overridden and erased'  
  
'You make less and less sense the more you say, I'm not a unit and I don't have a function'  
  
My thoughts were cut short as I felt something step on my tail and I heard the sound of something falling with a shout. I turned and saw someone face down on the floor getting up.  
  
"You did that on purpose you idiot!" the cat-like creature yelled at me grabbing me by the collar  
  
"It was an accident." I said being lifted off the ground. I also noticed that it was quiet for the first time since I walked in here and didn't need to look around to see that everyone was looking at us.  
  
'Target's adrenaline level rising, attack imminent'  
  
I was wondering what that meant right before he tossed me into a nearby table. The sound of the wooden table splintering into pieces beneath me tearing my skin in a few places, it felt like I was bleeding.  
  
'This units outer structure is damaged, running counter measures'  
  
'I don't understand anything you just said'  
  
The creature attacked me again but this time I reacted much quicker and dodged this time.  
  
"Hold still you stupid piece of shit!" he yelled trying to attack me  
  
'Countering attack'  
  
I grabbed his arm with my claws digging into his flesh and flipped him over my shoulder and slammed him on the ground, then I heard a sickening snap and a cry of pain as I crushed his am and shattered the bones.  
  
"That wasn't the best idea I've had." I said as I began backing up towards the door  
  
'SWAT units on route'  
  
'What?'  
  
Just then several mechanical soldiers burst though the door, the sound of their metal feet clanging on the ground drowned out the screams that filled the air. Several people went down as the machines opened fire and bullets streamed into the room.  
  
'Hostile environment detected, scanning for quickest escape route'  
  
I look and see just what I was looking for, a window. I run toward it and jump through the glass cutting myself badly, but I ignore it and run back to the car. As I start the engine I can see those freedom fighters fighting their way out and they followed the same path did out the window and took off in random directions. I decided to worry about that later and started the car and pressed down hard on the gas pedal. The car lumbered forward and slammed into other cars and signs sending people scattering.  
  
"How about a new destination?"  
  
'.Cannot determine, no primary objective'  
  
"Guess that means I'll need something to do." I thought as I rounded another corner, nearly flying off the street from the high speeds  
  
'Now initiating auto recovery protocol, NanoTechSkin repairing'  
  
I could feel my wounds getting less painful and could see that the cuts on my arm were fading  
  
"That just brings me back to my first question; what am I?" 


	2. That's News To Me

Well this is chapter two and I think I'll answer that question about when I'll finish my third story, well the only problem is I seemed to have hit a bit of writers block. I'll get around to it, eventually; I'm slowly getting somewhere. Also the comment on the confusion that this story has, which will be cleared up in this chapter, it's supposed to be confusing in the first chapter to create mystery and such. Well anyway on with the story.  
  
I drove for the rest of the day; looking for somewhere I could find some answers. The voice in my head had told me to go to some large tower that was a few miles outside the city on the edge of the forest.  
  
"What am I going to find at this tower anyway?"  
  
'Records indicate a computer database still in operation, uplink to main computer still possible through satellite relay inside the tower'  
  
"I hope that means I'll get some answers."  
  
After crossing into the dense forest, I could see a large ancient tower covered in thick vines and other forest growth. It was barely standing and looked as if it was going to collapse any minute.  
  
"This place is a dump." I said as I brought the vehicle to a stop. I got out and could taste the humidity in the air; it was thick and made it uncomfortable to breath very deeply. I walked toward the decaying ruin and pushed on a panel next to the door, it slid open partially and then jammed.  
  
"Piece of junk," I said pressing the panel again, but still nothing happened, "Guess I'll just have to force it open." I said trying to pull the doors open; they gave way easily and grinded out of the way enough for me to get through. I looked around the room and saw a thick layer of dust on everything; in the corner I could see the computer.  
  
"There it is, now to figure out myself." I said as I walked over to the computer. Those words that pop up every now and then came into my mind as I started working the computer.  
  
'Accessing database, initiating computer uplink'  
  
A panel flipped open and reveled a small lens that shot a beam of light into my right eye; it felt strange, but not unnatural. It was a warm feeling that filled my body, and was relaxing, as if I had done this before.  
  
'Accessing diagnostic data for this unit. Error found, several memory clusters have been corrupted. Downloading replacement files'  
  
"Tell me about me, I need to know everything." I said aloud, my voice echoing off the high walls  
  
I saw page after page of information scrolling by; I wasn't able to read it all but the voice filled me in on everything that was going by  
  
'Unit designated as Phoenix, primary function is to search for and destroy rebel forces'  
  
"So that's what my name is?"  
  
'Confirmed'  
  
"What else then?"  
  
'A prototype created by Dr. Robotonick, but was discontinued due to defects'  
  
"Created? What does that make me then?"  
  
'This unit is a biological android'  
  
"Android? I'm a machine of some sort?"  
  
'Affirmative'  
  
I was somewhat surprised at the news, yet somehow, not that surprised. I felt like I had always known but didn't want to accept it, it had to be a mistake.machines don't bleed or drink or have feelings, if I was a machine I wouldn't be having these sort of thoughts.  
  
"How can I feel, bleed, and everything else if I was a machine?"  
  
'This unit was artificially grown as a biological entity, then cybernetic enhancements were added to increase the effectiveness of combat skills and capability for destruction.  
  
"Well I'm not going to do any of that."  
  
'Primary objective has been previously overridden'  
  
"Alright, what was this defect that you talked about anyway?"  
  
'Searching.defect comes from an illogical capacity for free thought and feelings, this trait was unable to be removed from the brain and was originally suppressed to increase efficiency.'  
  
"How did I end up in the dessert then?"  
  
'Records show that this unit had malfunctioned and escaped the testing facility and commandeered a transport that contained classified material.'  
  
"Classified material? What was in that truck?"  
  
'Stolen transport contained a key element in finishing this units construction, a chaos emerald'  
  
"What is a chaos emerald?"  
  
'Searching.found, a mystic gemstone that exhibits unlimited power; there are seven gems in total according to database'  
  
"What do I need one for?"  
  
'This unit was to have a chaos emerald infused into its' structure to increase its' power'  
  
"Hmm, so it must be in the back of the truck, I never did look back there."  
  
'Acquisition of the chaos emerald is the secondary objective'  
  
"Is there a third?"  
  
'Not to date'  
  
"Let's see, was there anything else? Wait, now I know, who are you anyway? What's this voice that's talking to me all the time?"  
  
'Internal tactical computer and database, uses are to collect information and assist in the running of advanced abilities'  
  
"Advanced abilities?"  
  
'Radio interception/jamming, internal radar, computer infiltration, and accelerated combat mode'  
  
"What was that last one?"  
  
'Searching.found; accelerated combat allows this unit to move beyond super sonic speeds and thus making the surrounding environment appear slower and making reflexes smoother and quicker'  
  
"That sounds complicated."  
  
'This procedure requires the completion of the secondary objective due to the massive drains of power required to execute'  
  
"Hmm, I can't think of a reason to gain those sort of powers, but I think it's best to get it anyway."  
  
The light coming from the panel had stopped and I turned to walk out of the decaying and decrepit tower and went back to the truck. I went around the back and saw a large heavy door; on it was a large panel with a keypad, apparently a numbered password was needed to get inside.  
  
'A key code is required to gain access to the.'  
  
"I have a better idea." I said getting a grip on the panel and beginning to pull it toward me; I could hear the metal starting to twist and grind and the keypad lock finally tore loose in my hands and I fell backward. I got and looked inside the truck and saw a small metal container, which looked a lot easier to get open since there was no lock on it. I stepped into the truck and lifted the lid off of it, there was a loud hiss of pressurized air as a cloud of smoke poured out and a bright glow filled the truck.  
  
"Is this a chaos emerald?" I said pulling out a small red glowing gemstone  
  
'Secondary objective achieved, starting fusion'  
  
"Come again?" my words were cut short, as the emerald seemed to be absorbed into my skin, "What's going on?"  
  
'Emerald fusion complete, now releasing power safeties'  
  
I could feel my entire body burning as the emerald's power began to flow through me, the pain was more than I could bear and I felt myself black and fall forward as my last thoughts were fading. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.  
  
'Activating retrieval beacon'  
  
"Damn." 


	3. Captured

I was still unconscious, and could feel cold air on my body. I felt like I was floating in the air, there was a muffled sound coming from around me.  
  
"We tracked the beacon to the unit that was sending the signal."  
  
"So it was him? It had been quite a while since you ran away you defective piece of junk. Put that thing in the holding cells with the other prisoners; and make sure you put an electronic inhibitors on him to prevent him from escaping."  
  
I felt my body change direction and soon realized that I was being carried by two of something, I wasn't sure what though. Even with my eyes still closed I could still tell that the ceiling had several lights on it in a row, indicating a hallway of some sort. I could hear the sound of metal clanking on the floor and figured that my escorts must be machines. I felt another change in direction and heard the hiss of a door sliding open; I could hear voices, different than last time. They seemed to be desperate pleas for help; this must have been the prison that was mentioned earlier.  
  
"Put him in here." Said a metallic voice from behind me  
  
I felt my body being placed up against a cold, metal wall.  
  
"Bring the collar." Said another voice, although it was hard to tell the difference from the first, except that they came from different places in the room. I was pulled slightly forward as a thick metal collar was placed around my neck and I was pushed back against the wall, none too gently; then shackles of some sort were placed on my arms. I began to feel a strange tingling sensation through my body that made me feel tired. I heard footsteps leaving the room and a loud slam and several booming clicks as the cell door locked.  
  
"Well I guess I'm in a bit of trouble." I whispered softly, "hey computer, how about a little help?"  
  
'Error.unable.determine..interference.by.'  
  
"That's not much help." I said opening my eyes letting them adjust to the light, what little there was. The first thing I looked for was a door out of this cell; a shaft of light penetrated the darkness, a small slot on the door, just big enough to look through. I struggled to stand and managed to stand, still weakened by whatever the strange devices on my arms were. I shuffled over to the door and peered out into the main room, several other cells dotted the walls all around, and it had a high ceiling with several floors above, each the same as the one that preceded it. Inside most of the cells were ragged prisoners each behind bars. I seemed to have been put in a specially designed cell to keep me from escaping, since I was undoubtedly stronger than your average prisoner. I scanned the room and was going to try thinking of a way out, when the door opened and a man walked in. He was a large man, and very tall, much taller than any normal man should be. A thick mustache and a high collared red outfit covered his face. He turned and made eye contact with me and walked over to my cell. He came to a stop only a few inches from my face, which was still in the small slot in the door. From this close distance I could see his black eyes and the recessed red pupils that seemed to be buried in the back of his eye sockets.  
  
"So you're awake." He said after a bit of silence, "That's good to see."  
  
"Who are you?" I said weakly  
  
"You don't remember me? Your creator? your master? I'm almost hurt." he said as he turned and took a few steps back and laughed softly, "No, I don't suppose you would, it's been a while and we never really 'met' each other." He said as he turned back around, the heels of his polished black shoes making a clear click as they came together.  
  
"You must be Dr. Robotonick then." I said remembering what the computer files told me  
  
"So you do remember; wonderful, wonderful. Maybe you also remember what you're hear for, hmm?" he said twitching his mustache  
  
"Let me guess, I'm supposed to have a defect or something right?"  
  
"Yes, you do." He said marching back and fourth in front of the cell. "But there is also another problem. You see you have what I would find the most despicable of all traits, especially in something that is supposed to be the image of perfection, the machine. You my friend, have a conscience." He said almost spitting on the last word as he stopped in place  
  
"I don't see how that makes me defective, I'd say it makes me better than your perfect and mindless drones you surround yourself with."  
  
"Oh it does make you defective, because you can't do the job that you were programmed to do."  
  
"Kill, just like the rest of those machines of yours?"  
  
"Precisely, but you seem to not want to follow orders. Which brings me to the reason I came down here personally to see you, do you want to know why that is?"  
  
"Not really." I said trying to muster a small amount of humor  
  
"Very funny; something else that's wrong with you I suppose, but seriously I have just been told that the vehicle you stole is missing its cargo. Do you happen to know what that cargo was?"  
  
"Hmm, was it a red emerald about this big, shines a lot and is filled with energy?" I said motioning with my still shackled arms  
  
"That's the one." He said laughing again as if anticipating the humor of my next response  
  
"Never heard of it." I said stepping away from the door and moving into the all-concealing darkness.  
  
Just then I heard the door open and light flooded into it. He walked over to me and pulled me out of the cell and into the light of the main room. His grip was surprisingly strong for a human being; which I was starting to begin to doubt when I looked at his hand. It was made of metal.  
  
"I see you've noticed my hand, it's quite something isn't it?" he said walking me over to another room in the back of the prison area. He dragged me down a hallway into a small dark room, the only light coming from a large fixture on the ceiling that shown down on a complex looking chamber it seemed to be wired to the many computers that lined the wall. Wires protruded from everywhere creating an indiscernible clutter that made it seem like every wire just led to another.  
  
"This is my favorite invention; I call it the robotosizer, try and guess what it does." He said motioning to his metal hand  
  
I said nothing and just stared at the chamber.  
  
"The silent treatment huh? Well then, humor me while I explain. You see this lovely machine has the power to change any organic life into a machine soldier completely obedient to me."  
  
"I guess that means that you had a little accident." I said motioning toward his hand  
  
"You guessed right. The process was quite painful and that was just my hand."  
  
"The voice of experience I guess."  
  
"True."  
  
"Well then you mind if I guess what you're going to do next?"  
  
"By all means try." He said still keeping a firm grip on me  
  
"You're going to stuff me into that chamber and change me into one of your robot puppets."  
  
"Actually no, I'm not."  
  
"What then?"  
  
"Just watch," he said as he turned his head toward the door, "Bring in the prisoner!"  
  
Two soldiers walked into the room with a prisoner; it was a girl, an echidna girl.  
  
"This is one of the newest prisoners that had been captured from a village I had ordered to be destroyed recently, lovely isn't she?"  
  
I didn't answer, but I did agree with that last comment he made.  
  
"I figured that since the emerald wasn't inside of the transport, you must have done something with it."  
  
"I figure that you're right."  
  
"Well then, guess what I'm going to do with her? No answer? Then I'll who you. Put her in the chamber and prepare to robotosizer her."  
  
"What will this prove?"  
  
"I think that since you have a conscience you will tell me what I want to know, or else this girl will soon be yet another minion in my 'mindless puppet' army. Her fate lies in your hands."  
  
I could see a look of panic grip the girls body as she was held fast by the  
  
"I ate it."  
  
"Hmm.start the procedure."  
  
"I told you what you wanted to know, stop this."  
  
"I don't believe you."  
  
"I absorbed the stupid thing, it's inside of my chest."  
  
"Oh really? Let her go then."  
  
The machines let the girl go and she backed away from them into a corner of the room and was breathing heavily, still panicked and confused at what was going on.  
  
"So now what do you want?"  
  
"Why the emerald of course."  
  
"I told you it was inside of me."  
  
"That's nothing a little exploratory surgery wont fix." He said pushing me into a wall, causing me to fall to the ground. He turned and left with his guards in tow and gave them the order to watch the outside of the door and make sure we didn't escape.  
  
I had sat in a darkened corner of the room, trying to think of a way out. My computer was still on the fritz and wasn't any help, and I still couldn't move with the bindings on me that seemed to be making it hard to concentrate. I closed my eyes and could hear the room's dead silence, or near dead silence. The only sound I heard was breathing; it wasn't mine though. I looked up and saw that the girl was staring at me; even in the darkness she seemed to be staring right into my eyes. I wondered if she was afraid the situation she was in, or if she was afraid of me.  
  
"Who are you?" she finally said after a minute or two passed  
  
I thought about it for a minute, and remembered that the computer had called me Phoenix.  
  
"My name is Phoenix." I said closing my eyes again, "What's yours?"  
  
"Tik'al."  
  
I sat in silence trying to think of a plan to get out, when she called out to me again.  
  
"Are you still there?"  
  
"Yes, why?"  
  
"It's hard to tell with your eyes closed."  
  
"How can you tell in this darkness?"  
  
"Your eyes glow a blue light when they are open."  
  
"I had forgotten about that."  
  
"Why are you here anyway? What did he want with you?"  
  
"He wants this emerald inside of my body; I'm a machine he created to kill people."  
  
"You don't look or act like a machine to me."  
  
"I'm not an ordinary machine; only a few things about me are mechanical, I'm mostly an organic life form like you are."  
  
"What sort of emerald is inside of you anyway?"  
  
"They're called chaos emeralds."  
  
"I've seen those before, that's why I'm here."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I know the location of the rest of the emeralds, he brought me here and was going to torture me to find out what he wanted."  
  
"Maybe we could get out somehow." I said looking at the shackles that still held me  
  
"How?"  
  
"I'll need a minute to think of that." I said opening my eyes again, 'I just hope I can come up with an idea before he tries to take me apart' I thought 


	4. Escape

It had been about ten minutes since he had left me and that other girl prisoner inside of this room. I had just about given up thinking about a way to escape, but I still looked at the shackles that bound me. They gave off a barely audible hum and a small, dim, yellow light from between the seams of the gray metal. There must have been a way to remove them, or at least cut their power so they stop making me feel so tired and weak. I looked across the room again and saw that the girl was still looking at me.  
  
"Something wrong?" I said, my voice cutting the silence  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
You've been staring at me this entire time haven't you?"  
  
"Yes, actually." I heard her move and then what I thought was a metallic sound, but I wasn't sure.  
  
"Well?" I shifted my position since my leg had started to cramp; it didn't help so I just stood up and leaned against the wall.  
  
"If it's bothering you that much I'll stop." She said with a bit of annoyance as I heard her move again, and that metallic sound again; the sound of something jingling.  
  
"What was that metal sound just now."  
  
"I'm sorry I can't hear you, I'm too busy trying not to bother you." She said rather sarcastically  
  
"No really, what was that sound."  
  
"They were my earrings, I guess they must be bothering you as well."  
  
"Would you stop that, I think you just gave me an idea." I said walking over to her and looking at the earrings that she was talking about  
  
"What are you looking at?" she said standing up and moving away from me  
  
"I need you to do something for me."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"I need you to take your earring and jam it into the space between these shackles." I said holding out my hands  
  
"Why should I help you?"  
  
"If I can get loose I can break out of here."  
  
She didn't say anything as she just turned her back on me and walked away from me.  
  
"I'm not interested in helping you, I don't even really know you."  
  
"Well then I guess you don't care about getting out of here then." I said moving a few steps, "Hope you and the rest of these prisoners enjoy being machines."  
  
"You don't seem you unhappy about it."  
  
"Well I was made this way; besides, you and the others will have to endure the mind bending pain that comes from the process." I said waving to the chamber in the center of the room.  
  
We just stood in silence for several minutes. I was wondering if I would just be destroyed or reprogrammed back into service by that man. Then I thought of what he wanted the emeralds for in the first place, perhaps to make a better version of me. I'd then be obsolete and discarded.  
  
'I can't let that happen to me, I'm going to get out of here somehow. You with me computer?'  
  
'Error sys fail'  
  
'I'll take that as a no.' I thought beginning to try and break free from my bonds. I strained with all my remaining might, but was unable to budge the shackles.  
  
"Here let me help." The girl said walking up from behind and grabbing my hand and taking her earring from her ear poking at the seams in the shackles.  
  
"Why are you helping me now? I thought you weren't going to help me."  
  
"Well I did find it pretty amusing watching you brood over here and try to break free, but I think it would be mutually beneficial if we helped each other. Besides, I'm not into mind bending pain." She said working  
  
"Very funny." I said laughing a bit  
  
I could hear the sound electricity and see the occasional spark fly as she worked the piece of metal vigorously.  
  
"Got it." She said as there was a pop and the shackles fell off.  
  
"Much better." I said as I popped my knuckles and took the earring from her and began working on the collar around my neck.  
  
"So how do you plan on getting out of here anyway?"  
  
"Well I was thinking the quickest way out of here, but I have no idea what the layout of this place is right now." I said as the collar fell away  
  
'System restarting, rebooting computer'  
  
"Give me a minute and I'll have a way out of here."  
  
'System now online'  
  
'I need a map of this building, and the fastest way out of here.'  
  
'Data shows that current location is the prison complex'  
  
'I know that, tell me how to get out.'  
  
'Leaving this location is not advised as the layout does not allow for it'  
  
'What do you mean?"  
  
'Displaying diagram'  
  
I saw picture of the building; it was an extremely tall tower. It came from below the surface of the ground and rose above to the sky. There were three levels to it.  
  
"What are you doing just standing around staring into space for? I thought we were going to escape sometime today." The girl interrupted  
  
"I'm getting to it, just wait." I replied  
  
'Current position is 500 meters below the surface'  
  
"That's just great, we're underground with no way out."  
  
"What do you mean underground?"  
  
"Just what I meant, we're underground. It's a simple concept, I don't see why you don't get it."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
'Is there a way to an upper level or something?'  
  
"Hey I'm talking to you!"  
  
'A supply elevator is located in the storage room in area E'  
  
"I've found a way out, let's go."  
  
"Alright fine, but I still want to know what you meant about that comment earlier."  
  
I ignored this and walked over to the door and pressed my hand on the panel; the panel lit up and beeped a few times and the door opened.  
  
"That was easy." Tik'al said walking past me out of the room and down the hallway  
  
"Too easy if you ask me."  
  
"No one asked you."  
  
This took me a bit by surprise, but then I thought about it realizing that it wasn't that unusual.  
  
"Well you should let me lead since I know where we're going and you don't."  
  
"Well then lead on and stop trailing behind."  
  
'Someone's in a bad mood.'  
  
We continued down the hallway, with me now in the lead, and came to the main prison area. The prisoners were still jailed and begging for help as they saw us enter.  
  
"We need to save them, can you get them out?" she said gazing around the room  
  
"I was just thinking the same thing." I said looking toward the room and spying a computer nearby  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"I'm going to unlock the doors and let them out with this computer." I said as I walked toward the lumbering machine.  
  
I began working and found a list of systems that were currently online.  
  
"Let's see; lights, blast door controls, alarms, security grid, prison door controls.hmm, main power, that sounds like the best one." I said pressing the controls shutting off the power to the entire area.  
  
Power failure detected in sectors A though G, now activating emergency power generator  
  
The lights shut off and the room went pitch black as the electronic doors on the prison all opened from the lack of power. The cheers of triumph as the other prisoners escaped filled the air as they all ran out of their cells and out the main door.  
  
"Well at least you did one thing right." She said smugly watching the people run out the door  
  
"Um, thanks, I guess." I said, not wanting to tell her that I just let them out so they could cause a diversion and make escaping easier while they ran around in a thunderous mob.  
  
We left the room and turned down the hall and continued on for a while. I noticed that there weren't any alarms going off yet, nor had the main power system been restored. I thought about it for a while, realized that something wasn't right when we came to the storage room with the elevator.  
  
"Now what?" she asked me  
  
"We get inside of the elevator and ride it to the next level of course." I said pressing the call button.  
  
"Does this lead to the outside?"  
  
"I'm not sure, let me check."  
  
The elevator doors grinded open and we stepped inside. The doors slid shut again and the elevator rose up the shaft slowly, the gears loudly groaned as they strained to pull the elevator to the higher floors.  
  
'What's on the next level?'  
  
'Next level contains the ground level launch area for vehicles and soldiers'  
  
'What about the level after that?'  
  
'Level three contains the aerial level, docking platform for the flying fortress'  
  
"I think we'll get off on the next floor, I don't we need to go to the top floor of this place. We'll just get off on the next level."  
  
"Alright."  
  
"I still say that it was too easy to get out of there though, I expected some sort of attack or trap or some such thing."  
  
Main power now online.intruders detected on sub-level prison, and elevator shaft, deploying security teams to capture.  
  
"Well there's your attack that you were wanting, hope you're happy."  
  
"Not really." 


	5. Attacked

Red alert. Intruders detected, dispatching security to level two-elevator hall.  
  
The tower's computer had been chiming this same message for the last few minutes. I had figured that most likely the other prisoners that had been running around downstairs were either being captured or killed off. I felt a strange feeling of remorse that was getting to be annoying; I also felt the sensation of pity for those poor souls, being freed just to be possibly killed.  
  
"They'll be waiting for us at the door at the slow pace this thing is going, can't you do something about it?" Tik'al started  
  
"I'll think of something before we get there." I said examining the elevator  
  
There was a ladder on the wall that went up to a panel on the ceiling that seemed to lead outside to the top of the elevator.  
  
'This is a maintenance door for the repair and servicing to the servos of the elevator winch'  
  
"Alright I have a plan, first I need you to push the button for the top floor over there." I said pointing to a control panel on the wall  
  
"This one?" she said pushing the top button  
  
"Yeah, now we just climb out this door on the ceiling and on top of the elevator."  
  
"Why? I just pushed the button, so aren't we going to the top of this place?"  
  
"We would if they weren't going to stop the elevator on the second floor; you didn't think they were just going to let us waltz out the front door as if nothing was wrong did you?"  
  
"I suppose not."  
  
"Well alright then, let's climb out." I said reaching for the bars only to be stopped when Tik'al wrapped her arms around my neck tightly, "What are you doing?"  
  
"Well you're going to carry me out of here; it's the gentlemanly thing to do."  
  
"I guess," I said starting to climb up the ladder, "but in case you haven't noticed, I'm not a gentleman of any kind."  
  
We, or should I say I, climbed onto the roof and looked around.  
  
"Now where to?"  
  
"I hadn't thought that far ahead yet."  
  
"I thought you said you had a plan."  
  
"I don't remember saying it was a good plan."  
  
"So much for you being useful."  
  
"Just give me a minute will you?"  
  
'I need a map of this shaft computer.'  
  
'There's an air vent approximately thirty meters up that leads to a cooling plant in another sector above level two'  
  
'Well that's better than nothing I suppose.'  
  
"Alright I have a plan now."  
  
"A good one this time?"  
  
"I don't know, we'll just find out when that after it works wont we?"  
  
"Why don't I find that reassuring?"  
  
"You're just a pessimist, just have a little faith in my half thought out ideas."  
  
I heard her sigh as I reached for the metal cables, still pulling up the elevator, and grabbed the end that was going up and started climbing.  
  
"Why are you wasting time climbing? The thing is still going to keep going."  
  
"Well once they see that we're not in the elevator they will let it continue on to the next level."  
  
"Isn't that a good thing?"  
  
"No. If it continues up it will eventually get to a ceiling where it can't go any higher." I said pulling us higher up the cable  
  
"So."  
  
"Well if we are still on top of this thing when that happens, we'll be crushed to death against the ceiling above. Well at any rate you'll be crushed, I have a feeling that I could survive a slight bit of crushing but I can't say the same for you."  
  
"Is that supposed to be funny or something?"  
  
"Maybe, it all depends on your point of view." I said continuingly scanning the walls to find the access to the air vent  
  
"Well from here it isn't very funny at all." She said over the grinding gears and the sound of the tower computer still blaring its klaxon alarm  
  
As we continued climbing red beams of light from wall sensors filled the shaft, the computer has probably seen us by now.  
  
"Hadn't counted on scanners inside of here."  
  
"Your plan is already crumbing apart."  
  
"Sure is, I'll just have to make a new one as I go."  
  
I looked around as one of the sensors locked onto me and another alarm went off.  
  
Intruders detected in supply elevator shaft, redirecting security teams to intercept  
  
"Damn."  
  
"Well don't just hang here, do something!" she yelled over the alarm  
  
'I wish she would stop yelling in my ears.' I thought as I climbed up a bit more, the lights still following me  
  
'Air shaft detected'  
  
'I see it.' I thought looking at the wall where a small yellow light was flashing amongst the red cascade that surrounded us  
  
"There's our escape route over there!" pointing with one of my hands and holding onto the cable with the other  
  
"Let's get out of here then, all this noise is hurting my ears!"  
  
'Hurting her ears? I'm the one getting yelled at here.' I thought as I jumped from the cable to the wall, digging my claws into the metal  
  
"Could you warn me next time you're about to do something like that?"  
  
"I'll make a mental note of that for next time." I said as I used one of my hands to pull the grate off of the pane. The air vent was unusually tall and wide I had noticed as we climbed into it leaving the blaring noise of the alarms behind us. I noticed Tik'al was short enough to walk upright easily though the vent; unfortunately for me I was a little too tall to do the same so I had to bend over somewhat to walk. I heard her laughing a bit from my awkward stance as I trudged unhappily down the vent.  
  
"It's not that funny."  
  
"It depends on your point of view." She said laughing at the fact that she turned my own comment from earlier against me  
  
"I bet you feel very clever right now don't you?"  
  
"Very much so."  
  
"Well I hope that feeling keeps you happy when I tell you I haven't thought any farther than this point."  
  
"It doesn't help much, but laughing at you makes it worth it."  
  
"Hmm."  
  
"That's all you have to say? No witty comment or something?"  
  
"I'll make one after I've looked at this map again and figure out a new path to get to the garage on the second level."  
  
We walked down the vent for several more minutes, turning here and there when necessary. There was little light most of the way, aside from the tiny cracks of light spilling out from the seams of the metal. I could hear the sound of a fan blowing somewhere nearby, the blades cutting through the air making a loud whooshing sound.  
  
"Do you here that?" Tik'al said after a minute  
  
"Yeah, it's a fan." I said smugly at the obviousness of the comment  
  
"Not that, the other sound."  
  
"I don't hear any other sounds."  
  
"That small rapid clicking sound that keeps happening."  
  
"Hmm, nope nothing."  
  
"Well my hearing is better than yours I guess, because I definitely hear something moving."  
  
I looked and saw her ears twitch, she was apparently right about the sound.  
  
'Computer scan for movement.'  
  
'Several small targets are approaching from above, unable to identify'  
  
"Well you're right about something moving around in here, something in the vent leading straight up is coming down our way."  
  
"Something? Something like what?"  
  
"I don't know; it's unidentifiable supposedly. Perhaps we could just stand here talking about it while it comes down and attacks us."  
  
"Maybe not."  
  
We continued at a quicker pace and got to another grate. On the other side I could hear the sound of steam hissing and gears grinding. I punched the grate off and we climbed out into a very humid room. I stood strait up finally and felt my back popping from the awkward position I had been in for so long. A plume of steam blasted up from a pipe running along the base of a nearby wall, I felt the heat and condensation left on my right arm from the blast.  
  
"Well we're somewhere." I said walking forward down a path between the massive cooling equipment that seemed to be keeping this base and it's functions from overheating  
  
"Now what?" Tik'al said following me, "And what about those noises from earlier?"  
  
"The answer to your first question is I don't know, and the answer to your next question is in the room with us already."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
'Multiple targets coming from all directions, suggested tactic is to gain a more strategic position for combat'  
  
"Come on, we need to climb those stairs over there." I said pointing to a nearby stairway leading to a steel door marked exit  
  
She started heading for the door when she turned and saw that I wasn't coming.  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"I'm going to fight, what does it look like?"  
  
"Why? We should just run and get out of this horrible place."  
  
"Well if we run whatever is following us is still going to follow us. And if I'm going to get you out of here then I have to protect you this way."  
  
"Well then good luck, and try not to die or something stupid like that."  
  
"Thanks for those inspiring words." I said sarcastically  
  
The room was filled with noise that made it difficult to tell what was coming from where. I stood motionless for a moment, listening. I heard a slight clang of metal on metal coming from the ceiling and walls.  
  
'Targets approaching from above'  
  
No sooner than that was said three small metal spheres fell from the air and landed on the ground around me. They didn't bounce or roll like they should've, instead several small protrusions extended from all over them; they seemed to be legs of some kind. They all balanced themselves on their thin wiry legs; then a slot opened on the front of them and a probe stuck out.  
  
'Targets identified as XS934 series security droids, primary weapon is an electrical probe used to subdue intruders'  
  
This became apparent as the one behind me stabbed me with one of the probes. I could hear the crackle of the electricity as the rest of them began to charge their weapons; they all reared up like cobras ready to strike I jumped to the side and up onto one of the grinding machines, the rumbling under my feet.  
  
'Warning, more targets approaching from the rear'  
  
"Damn, not more of them."  
  
I turned just in time to catch one of them out of the air as it jumped for my face, two more hit me in the chest and knocked me on my back and the rest swarmed over me. I could feel the sting of the shocks and smell my skin burning as they smothered me.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah, doing great. Should do this more often." I managed to muffle out  
  
'Current tactic ineffective, attempting to devise new strategy'  
  
'I have a strategy already.' I thought as I reached out and tore my claws through two of the robots and trying to shake off the others in vain  
  
'This isn't working as well as I thought, okay computer come up with something already.'  
  
'Energy buildup in progress.'  
  
'What does that mean?'  
  
'Discharging chaos energy'  
  
I felt my body getting warm all over, and I seemed to be glowing. I could feel the energy from the chaos emerald inside of me getting stronger, and then there was a thunderous blast and the sound of the air itself tearing apart from the impact. The robots flew from me and their metal bodies seemed to melt away before they even hit the ground.  
  
"That was effective." I said standing up and jumping down from the machinery  
  
"Are you alright?" Tik'al asked walking up to me  
  
"I'm fine, just a little scratched up." I said walking towards the door  
  
"No you're not, look at those cuts and burns on your skin."  
  
"They'll be gone later, I'm a fast healer."  
  
"Well I guess, just don't do something stupid like that again."  
  
"So you were worried about me or something? I'm touched."  
  
"Well don't be, I just meant that you're supposed to be helping me out of here not getting killed."  
  
"I see, well let's get going." I said opening the door to the exit revealing a set of stairs  
  
We walked down a bit and came to another door marked garage.  
  
"See? I told you I had a plan of some sort." I said pushing the door open  
  
We looked in amazement at the hundreds of vehicles lined up inside and the massiveness of the room.  
  
Intruders detected in base level garage, deploying troops to capture  
  
"Again with this?" I said as a set of doors on the far side opened and a troop of machines poured out of it 


	6. Freedom and a New direction

'How come a simple escape plan can't just work out the way you want it to?' I thought as the machine soldiers opened fire. I could hear the sound of the bullets hitting the metal walls and floor as a hail of gunfire went off. I felt the sting of several stray shots strike me in my right arm.  
  
"Get behind that pillar over there, I'll distract them!" I yelled against the roar of bullets pushing her out of the way  
  
'Tactical retreat suggested'  
  
I ran across the room and took cover behind a large truck similar to the one I had driven before.  
  
"Are you okay?" Tik'al called over to me as I leaned against the metal plating on the back of the vehicle  
  
"Yeah I'm fine!" I yelled back, knowing in my mind that it wasn't really true; I had a rather painful wound in my arm and the amount of bleeding was more than I cared for  
  
"If I had a weapon of some sort this would be so much easier." I said aloud to myself  
  
'Scanning for nearby armaments'  
  
'Well?'  
  
'Vehicle mounted 50mm cannon found'  
  
"I don't see any such thing." I said looking around as the machine soldiers were advancing closer, their heavy footsteps getting louder as they came  
  
"What are you doing just sitting there? They're getting closer!" Tik'al yelled  
  
"I'm working on another one of my plans that don't work." I said standing up  
  
I felt something against my back a reached behind me and found a handle. I turned it and inside the truck was that cannon that I couldn't find a minute ago.  
  
"That's exactly what I need." I said stepping up into the back and closing the door; I got behind the gun took a hold of the handles, which proved to be difficult with my injured arm but I still managed.  
  
The sound of approaching footsteps stopped just outside of the door. I could hear the electronic sounds of the soldiers, possibly scanning the truck to find me, just what I was counting on. The door swung open and I pulled the trigger and the gun let out a thundering blast that sent a painful jolt through my wounded arm. The shot rang out and the machines all were sent flying back; at this close range they were at they couldn't help being blown to smoldering piles of twisted metal.  
  
I stepped out of the truck and looked around for Tik'al. She was still standing by the pillar where I left her.  
  
"You're very reckless you know that?"  
  
"Well it worked, just like I planned it."  
  
"Now how do we get that door open, or did you not plan that for ahead?"  
  
"We just need to get inside of one of the vehicles and the door will let us out automatically."  
  
"Which one are we taking?"  
  
"I think we'll take the one with the gun."  
  
"Alright then drive us out of here then."  
  
"I think you should drive, my arm still hurts a bit." This was a bit of an understatement; I could tell that the bullets went strait through my arm and out the other side.  
  
"I don't know how to work this thing."  
  
"Just get in already before more of those things come back; I'll show you what to do as we go along." I said getting inside of the passenger side  
  
"Alright now how do you do this?" Tik'al said sitting in the driver seat  
  
"Easy; ignition, gas, steering, and brake." I said pointing at all the key parts  
  
"What if we hit something?"  
  
"As long as it's not bigger than this thing is we'll be fine; now drive forward the gate is opening."  
  
The vehicle lumbered awkwardly forward and out the gate, and down the metallic path leading away from the tower.  
  
"See how easy it is?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Oh well." I had leaned back and thought for a minute about the strange silence, aside from the still wailing alarm. "Have you noticed that no one is,"  
  
"Don't say it!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You know exactly what I'm talking about; the second you say something we'll be in trouble."  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
"What about all those times your 'plans' went wrong, huh?"  
  
"The fact that they did go wrong was all part of my plan."  
  
"Sure it was; just like getting shot in the arm was all part of your plan."  
  
"My arm is fine; it's actually doing better since the bleeding stopped."  
  
"So this doesn't hurt then?" she said poking my wounded arm  
  
"Of course not..." I said grimacing from the pain  
  
"I see." She laughed and continuing driving  
  
"Anyway, we need to go somewhere that they can't find us at."  
  
"Somewhere like where?"  
  
"I know a place; but I don't remember how to get there from here."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Ever since I was captured, I kind of lost my bearings."  
  
"So then you have no idea where you are?"  
  
"Not even the slightest clue."  
  
"Hmm, do you know anyone we could call on a radio?"  
  
"If we could find one."  
  
"What about where you came from? You do live somewhere don't you?"  
  
"Yes, but I can't get their right now."  
  
"Because?"  
  
"We need a plane."  
  
"What for?"  
  
"Have you ever heard of Angel Island?"  
  
"I think I have information on that somewhere. It's some large island floating around the sky isn't it?"  
  
"Yeah, that's it."  
  
"Well where are we going to find a plane then?"  
  
"I know some friends that have one."  
  
"Who are they?"  
  
"The Freedom Fighters."  
  
"Freedom Fighters? I remember seeing some of them in a city a while back."  
  
"Really? Which ones did you see?"  
  
"Umm, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles if I remember correctly."  
  
"Did you talk to them?"  
  
"No, I was too busy breaking someone's arm."  
  
"You're a violent person, you know that?"  
  
"He tripped over my tail and then attacked me; I was just defending myself."  
  
"So you say."  
  
"Anyway; from the information I have, the Freedom Fighters are mainly located in someplace called Knothole."  
  
"That's right, do you know where it is? Because it's location is supposed to be a secret."  
  
"That information hasn't been found yet, so no."  
  
"Well then we can just go there and get help from them."  
  
"You mean Tails and that plane called the Tornado?"  
  
"How do you know all that?"  
  
"There's a lot more information on everything that goes on in the world than you think."  
  
"Oh really? Does that mean that you're all-knowing or something?"  
  
"I don't think so, there are a few gaps in what I do know."  
  
"Like?"  
  
"Cliff."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Brake!" I shouted as the truck came to a screeching halt inches from the edge of the high cliff, "You should really watch the road when you drive."  
  
"What road? We left the road a while back, we're in a forest now."  
  
"You know what I mean."  
  
"Now what?"  
  
"Find that Knothole place, obviously."  
  
"I told you I don't know where we are."  
  
"No sense of direction?"  
  
"You could say that."  
  
"Well I was supposed to be the one that found that place anyway."  
  
"How's that?"  
  
"One of the things I was intended to do was to find and kill any and all rebel factions, including Knothole."  
  
"Glad you changed your mind."  
  
"So am I."  
  
"How were you supposed to find Knothole if you didn't know where it is?"  
  
"Well from the little information that has been taken, it's supposed to have been in a forest area somewhere."  
  
"There are a lot of forest areas around."  
  
"Well I was supposed to burn down every piece of greenery on the planet if necessary."  
  
"That's a bit extreme don't you think?"  
  
"Yeah." I said looking at my arm. It had healed up a bit and the pain had stopped. "Switch places with me, I'll take over driving."  
  
"Why? I thought I was doing a rather good job for a first time?"  
  
"You almost drove over a cliff."  
  
"Almost and did aren't the same thing."  
  
"Close enough when it comes to possible death."  
  
"Says you."  
  
"Well for now we need to go and find a radio and make a call and I think I know just the place; an old tower I ran into a few days ago."  
  
"Another tower? I've had my fill of those for while."  
  
"Too bad."  
  
I turned the car around and started driving toward the location of the tower, since it's the only place I'm sure isn't being guarded by those machine soldiers. 


	7. Plots of Darkness and Secrets

Inside of the great flying fortress, high above the tower that eclipsed the land below, an evil madman sits in a control room. His massive body seated in a rather large armchair, or what someone half his size would deem large. The room was quiet save for the gentle beeping of the lit computer screens surrounding him. Each of the screens was glowing with the images of the surrounding areas; showing soldiers on patrols in the surrounding waste of a land. The silence was abruptly ended when a door hissed open and two figures stepped into the room and stood in the darkness.  
  
"Sir the two prisoners have escaped as you said they would."  
  
"Good, I was almost beginning to wonder what was taking them so long."  
  
"If I may ask sir, why did you have them captured and attacked if you wanted them to escape in the first place?"  
  
"You may not question me or my methods Shadow, unless you've grown tired with living." Dr. Robotonick said leaning back in his chair  
  
"I only wish to not be kept in the dark about what goes on." Shadow said stepping into the light  
  
"Well if you must know it's all part of an elaborate plan of mine."  
  
"You never want to tell anyone what's going on in that head of yours lately."  
  
He said nothing and just swiveled his chair around and faced the other figure, still standing in the dark.  
  
"Is the tracking device working properly?"  
  
"Yes sir, it is functioning perfectly." Said a metallic voice  
  
"Good work Metal." He said turning back around toward the screens  
  
Shadow just starred at them both narrowing his eyes in annoyance; he seemed to favor that machine more than him, probably because he is just that. He must have enjoyed the fact that he was a loyal soldier that does his bidding without question. The other figure stepped out of the shadows. It was a robotic hedgehog, it was a silver color and its gleaming red eyes pierced the darkness that filled most of the room. Robotonick looked over his shoulder and saw that Shadow was still staring at him.  
  
"Something on your mind? Or do you just like staring at the back of my head?" he said irately  
  
"As interesting as your head is, that's not why I was looking at you."  
  
"What then?"  
  
"You still haven't told me about this great plan of yours." Shadow said with a bit irritation in voice  
  
"I don't care for your tone of voice; I think you should address me with a little more respect than that."  
  
"Maybe you should give me that same."  
  
"You talk more than I care for, just like that defective unit that is part of my plan."  
  
"Maybe you'd like it better if I was a brainless machine like him; with no free will and thoughts of my own like him over there." He said pointing to Metal, who had still been standing in the same spot in his usual attentive stance  
  
"Yes actually; why do you think that you're the only organic thing in my entire army of soldiers?"  
  
"I can probably rule out that you liked my magnetic personality." Shadow said laughing  
  
"I should say not; the only thing that keeps you here is the simple fact that you are a key balance of power, for the moment anyway."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"It means what it means; you have the same power of the chaos emeralds residing inside of you."  
  
"That's not what I meant; I was referring to the last bit, 'for the moment anyway' what did you mean by that?"  
  
"You're expendable, just like everything else."  
  
"So I'm just some tool to you? To be used and thrown away at the earliest sign of uselessness in your opinion?"  
  
"Even more so since you're not a machine."  
  
"More so?"  
  
"Machines are capable of being upgraded, becoming more powerful. Why do you think I've kept Metal around so long?"  
  
Shadow wanted to say that he was an idiot, but knew that the circumstances didn't favor such a comment.not now.  
  
"You already know I'm stronger than any other machine you've ever made." He said clenching his fists  
  
"Perhaps; except for one."  
  
"You don't mean that defect do you?"  
  
"Of course I do; he was built to be better than any other, to be perfection." He sighed heavily and began to squeeze the hand rest on his chair with his robotosized hand, "But he had to have the one thing that I despise most of all, the one thing that sickens me most of all just thinking about it."  
  
"A conscience?"  
  
"Precisely."  
  
"Where did that come from if you didn't want it to be there?"  
  
"It's from a conflict that arose in the fusion of flesh and technology.a mistake I will never make again."  
  
"That sounds like a personal problem."  
  
Robotonick said nothing and just 'harrumphed' and turned his chair back toward the screens.  
  
"Since you have nothing better to do, I want you to follow them."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Remember what I said about questioning me? Or do I need to have you robotosized to refresh you memory? Now take the tracking device and go after them." He said holding out a small device  
  
Shadow just stood for a moment; then snatched the device and walked out the door as it hissed open and closed. He continued down the hallway and got inside of an elevator.  
  
"One day the king shall fall from his throne at my hand, and I'll take his place." Shadow muttered to himself under the sound of the gears turning  
  
Back inside of the control room the doctor sat quietly staring at a screen, it seemed to be from a camera on the inside of the elevator.  
  
"Sir." Metal said  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"It has become apparent that he can't be trusted."  
  
"Indeed it has."  
  
"So what is your decision on how to handle this?"  
  
"Once he has gotten on his way, I want you to follow him, make sure he doesn't see you."  
  
"Anything else sir?"  
  
"Yes; if he does anything outside of what I told him, I want you to kill him."  
  
"As you command sir." Metal said before turning to leave the room  
  
Robotonick turned his attention to the internal cameras that were all focused on Shadow as he made this way through the fortress  
  
"All according to plan." He said laughing to himself  
  
Somewhere in on the outskirts of a forest, a familiar old tower still stands a lonely vigil, and a truck slowly approaches from the underbrush covering a barely visible path and comes to a stop on the side of the tower.  
  
"This is the place." I said getting out of the truck, engine still running, and walking around to its front  
  
"What is this old place?" Tik'al said following close behind  
  
"I came here and used the computer inside to find out about myself."  
  
"I'm surprised this place is still working; from the way it looks it might collapse any second."  
  
"It was pretty sturdy when I came here last time." I said lifting the hood and removing the metal shielding from the engine block  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Well when I was here I used up all the power, so now I'm going to use this engine to power the computer and try to get a radio signal out somehow."  
  
I walked over to the outside wall of the tower and scanned its surface for an opening of some sort. My eyes stopped on a moss-covered panel; I slid it open and found it to be a mess of old, outdated wires and circuits. I took a hold of two black wires and pulled them from the connectors and ran them to the engine, which I had taken care to park close by.  
  
"Now I just connect these and go inside."  
  
The wires sparked as they made contact with the ports on the engine, and a barely audible hum came from inside the thick concrete walls of the tower. We entered and I took my place at the computer and began working on getting a line of communication open, following the usual instruction from the computer in my head.  
  
'Suggested method is to utilize a low frequency signal on all wavelengths'  
  
I continued working and managed to get the speaker online, which was made apparent by a squeal of feedback and static that came from the microphone.  
  
"Alright, now the rest is up to you." I said turning the microphone towards Tik'al  
  
"What?"  
  
"Say something."  
  
"Why don't you do it?"  
  
"They don't know me, remember? You've met them and they've heard your voice before."  
  
"It's not like I command any real authority in their group or anything."  
  
"Well we need a familiar voice for this sort of thing, it's the most tactical thing to do right now." I said with a tactful tone  
  
"You sound like a robot."  
  
"I already told you I'm not."  
  
"Well you talk like one, at least when you get all serious like that."  
  
"I was engineered to think that way; not proud of where it came from, but at least it's helpful."  
  
"Alright already." She said turning toward the microphone, "Umm, hello is anyone there? Can someone hear me?"  
  
"Oh come now, can't you make it sound a little more urgent than that? We're calling for help, not making pleasant conversation." I said shaking my head  
  
"Oh shut up," she said jabbing me in the ribs. "I'm new at this; and you're the one who said I should be the one to do it."  
  
"True."  
  
There was no reply except for the static that buzzed on in a slightly higher pitch.  
  
"Let me think a minute, hmm." I thought as I ran some ideas through my head, and then thought that maybe I could use the towers computer to solve out problem. I began typing away on the keys, the air filling with the sounds of my claws clicking against the small metal squares.  
  
"What are you doing now?"  
  
"Another one of those tactical thoughts of mine. I'm searching the database for any intercepted radio transmissions made by any faction groups; really just a distress call."  
  
"What good would that do?"  
  
"Well if I run the message on a repeating loop and."  
  
"You're doing that robot thing again."  
  
"Anyway, someone should answer if we're lucky."  
  
I pressed a few more keys and a message scrolled down the screen and began playing  
  
This is advanced scouting party number 3512-alpha, we need an evac from sector 31 as soon as possible, repeat, this is advanced scouting party number 3512-alpha, we need an evac from sector 31 as soon as possible.  
  
"I hope someone heard that." I said as the message continued repeating  
  
"And if they didn't?"  
  
"Well." I was cut off by the sound of a voice on the other side of our call  
  
This is communications outpost 67453; there are no advanced scouting parties in that sector, who the hell is this?  
  
"Well this is working well." I said under my breath, "Well go on, and tell them who you are."  
  
"This is princess Tik'al, Emissary of Angel Island, calling for Knothole."  
  
"I'm sorry what, what did you say?" I said astounded  
  
Princess Tik'al?! What are you doing making false calls on secure lines?  
  
"I needed some way to get someone's attention."  
  
"Am I invisible or something?" I said tapping her on the shoulder, "All this time and you didn't tell me that?"  
  
"Not now I'm busy talking." She said shrugging me off  
  
Where are you located? We'll send our best to come and get you as soon as possible  
  
"Umm, hold on a second."  
  
"Oh now you want to listen to me?"  
  
"Do you know where we are exactly?"  
  
I sighed, and thought for a minute; she hasn't heard a thing I said.  
  
"Latitude 47 degrees longitude 115 degrees."  
  
"Did you get that?"  
  
Roger; by the way, who is that with you?  
  
"It's my umm, body guard."  
  
"Since when have I been your."  
  
"Shhh."  
  
Well just stay where you are and a transport will be there shortly  
  
"Alright, thank you very much." She said as the line cut off  
  
"Umm, still wondering about this 'princess' thing, what's that all about?"  
  
"I thought you said you knew all about what goes on from the information in that head of yours?"  
  
"I said I knew about a lot of things, not everything; there's very little information on Angel Island."  
  
"Well now there's a bit more isn't there?" she said smugly  
  
"Well anyway I've got some work to do on the truck."  
  
"Like what? They just said to stay where we were."  
  
"I'm not driving anywhere, just making a bomb."  
  
"A bomb? What for?"  
  
"To cover out trail of course."  
  
"What's that going to do? Besides making us a much slower, unprotected target."  
  
"It's just a decoy; I'm going to run this thing off a cliff the bomb will blow it to pieces and make it looked like we died in the blast."  
  
"So they'll think we died?"  
  
"Probably, probably not."  
  
"We'll I guess that's a plan."  
  
"When did I become a bodyguard anyway?"  
  
"I don't know, maybe since you've been watching over me for the last few hours."  
  
"Hmm, yeah I suppose that makes sense."  
  
I walked outside and opened up the back of the truck. I stepped into the back and began to take the large cannon inside apart.  
  
"So while we wait, do you mind if I ask you something?"  
  
"Like what?" I said tinkering with the machine, following detailed instructions on making the explosive  
  
"Why don't you have that urge to kill anyone anyway? What made you decide not to do such a thing?"  
  
"Hmm, You know what?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"I have no idea."  
  
"You can't be serious, there had to have been something."  
  
"Well Robotonick did say I was defective, maybe that's all it is."  
  
"That can't be it; you said you decided not to kill. Meaning that something made you not want to."  
  
"Really, I don't know why. Maybe just because it feels so wrong to me."  
  
"So you've done it before?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"Well there's another surprise."  
  
"It's not my fault that I can't remember something like that."  
  
"Can't or won't?  
  
"Again, I don't know."  
  
As I continued working I heard a noise coming from the forest, it sounded like some sort of vehicle wheeling its way towards our location.  
  
"I wonder who that could be?" I said, making the finishing touches on the makeshift bomb  
  
"Enemies perhaps?" Tik'al said looking around the side of the truck as a vehicle slowed and entered the clearing  
  
"Or maybe those friends of yours."  
  
"Looks like it."  
  
I stepped out of the truck carrying my new device and looked toward the new presence that had arrived. It was a large red truck with several discolored spots all over it. From the looks of it, the thing had been made of spare parts and salvaged materials. The door on the side flipped up and the brakes hissed and released the air pressure that had built up inside. A figure stepped out and into the grass; it was a blue hedgehog and a yellow fox.  
  
"So these are Sonic and Tails?"  
  
"Yes; they are."  
  
"This should be interesting." 


	8. Arrival

There was a tense feeling in the air as the 'Freedom Fighters', as they were so called, looked over us. I could tell that they didn't trust me just from looking at their facial expressions. I decided to play it safe by not doing any talking if it wasn't necessary.  
  
"So who's this guy?" Sonic finally asked  
  
"Like I told the person on the radio, he's my personal bodyguard." Tik'al answered  
  
"He looks like a spy for Robotnik if you ask me."  
  
"Well no one asked you, besides he's been protecting me and helped me escape."  
  
"I don't remember you having a bodyguard when you left the island." He replied  
  
"Well maybe I should've since I was captured due to a lack of escort; someone of my status shouldn't be left alone like I was."  
  
I would've thought a comment like that would've ended that conversation, but unfortunately I was wrong.  
  
"Well it's not my fault that you wandered off without telling anyone."  
  
"Um, Sonic?" The young fox child, Tails, had interrupted  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Don't you think that we could move this along? Reports say that there might be some wandering patrols sweeping through here soon."  
  
"I wonder why." He said staring directly at me  
  
A more easily intimidated person's blood might have run cold from the look I was getting from him; but I was far from being affected by such things  
  
"Are you two going to just stare at each other or are we going to just stand around and get caught or something?" Tik'al said with a bit of stress in her voice  
  
We all boarded the transport, all but Sonic and myself. I had walked back over to the truck. I opened the door and gently placed the bomb on the drivers side seat, then picked up a nearby medium sized rock and placed it on the gas pedal. The truck slowly began to roll in the direction of the cliff.  
  
"What are you doing?" Sonic asked me  
  
"Putting a bomb inside of this truck and blowing it up."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"That's not important." I said walking back towards him to get on the transport, only to stop at the door  
  
"Something I can help you with?" I said annoyed by the constant glaring he was doing  
  
"Yeah, what's you name anyway?"  
  
"Phoenix."  
  
"Well then Phoenix; I'll be keeping an eye on you, so watch your step."  
  
"I'll try and keep that in mind." I said sarcastically as I pushed past him into the vehicle  
  
The truck drove for quite a while, and all of us rode without saying a word. The inside was no better than the outside, it was too close quarters for me, and I felt very uncomfortable. More time passed; the deafening silence was getting on my nerves. I looked around and was unable to find something to relieve my boredom. I decided to just doze off for a while and get some rest since we could be traveling for a while; I began to dream.  
  
I could see a temple sitting on a small island-like plateau in a valley, it was surrounded by several other bits of land, and each connected by a long wooden bridge. I saw others that looked exactly like me walking around; the scene changed to the inside of the temple. Again I could see more of the others and, a large black crystal sitting in the center of the chamber. Around it everyone was chanting something, I couldn't figure out what was being said; it seemed to be some strange language...then I was awakened  
  
'Memory error detected, initiating mental blocks and correcting'  
  
'What the hell was that?'  
  
'Memory error'  
  
'That didn't seem like an error to me'  
  
I didn't get an answer back, which didn't seem surprising. The entire thing felt like just a weird dream, but also very familiar. Another hour passed and we finally came to a stop. The steel gray door hissed open and we disembarked from the vehicle; the first thing to hit me was the blinding rays from the mid-day sun. I stepped forward somewhat blindly as my eyes adjusted to the light, which was a change from the dimly light truck I was just in. As my vision cleared I could see group walking off and I began to follow. I took in my surroundings as I walked; we were inside of a seemingly large village where what looked like hundreds of 'rebels' were taking up residence. The sounds of voices and work being done filled the air, conversations about supplies and construction—and of Dr. Robotnik's harsh rule. We continued walking past the ramshackle huts and other structures which consisted of gun emplacements weapons storage and the like.  
  
"Tik'al" I whispered  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"This is Knothole correct?"  
  
"Yes, why?"  
  
"Well I expected to see something more, well impressive."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sonic said as the group stopped in the shadows of some trees  
  
"Well forgive my rudeness, but from the records I have read state that this place is the nerve center of all rebel activity."  
  
"Yeah, so?"  
  
"Well it doesn't make sense that this place hasn't been found and leveled by now."  
  
"We have scouts constantly patrolling the area around the forest," Tails said "besides that there's a..."  
  
"Don't tell him that stuff." Sonic interrupted him, "We don't know if he's a spy or not yet."  
  
"I already made that clear, I'm not a spy and I have no real interest in this little war that's going on."  
  
"Well anyway I still think that you can't be trusted."  
  
"Whatever you say..." I said as we continued on towards the center of the village; it was at this point I realized that this place could've passed for a small city with all the buildings, or maybe a somewhat heavily defended outpost. As we continued, I saw a massive building coming into view; this must have been the central area where all the operations were organized and supervised.  
  
"What would this place be?" I said examining the surprisingly elegant structure, a single flower among a field of weeds so to speak.  
  
"That is the operations center, where princess Acorn oversees all resistance activity." Tik'al said  
  
"Another princess? There's an awful lot of royalty around here." I said trying so see if there was any information in my memory about any of what she was saying  
  
"Well this entire planet used to be like that at one point, covered with vast cities and such."  
  
"Sounds like it used to be really something around here."  
  
"It was, until Robotnik ruined it."  
  
We came to a large, bronze gateway surrounded by numerous armed guards. High walls and what seemed to be security cameras surrounded the operations center, and from a closer look I was able to see gun emplacements all over the buildings. The  
  
'This must be where most of the resources have been allocated to'  
  
"Good afternoon Sonic." One of the guards said as he and the others came to attention and the gateway opened.  
  
"The princess is expecting you." He said as he led us all inside  
  
I looked out of the corner of my eye and noticed that the guards were all staring at me coldly as I followed the rest.  
  
We walked the main path leading to the doorway of the building; the afternoon sun peered from behind the clouds and shone down, the radiant light reflecting off the polished material of the center. We continued into the foyer, and walked up to a set of stairs that led to a room filled with computers. Technicians and other workers were busy working at different stations and discussing the progress of the rebellion and other resistance activities.  
  
"Princess Sally, Sonic and his group have arrived." Said our escort guard  
  
A chair in the middle of the room turned and revealed the princess; once again I was at a loss for any type of information regarding this person.  
  
'The database needs to be updated greatly' I thought  
  
"Very good, you are dismissed." She said with a commanding voice  
  
"Hi Sal!" Sonic said cheerfully  
  
"Sonic you know you're not supposed to call me that, it's so informal." The princess said  
  
"Hmm? Oh sorry. Ahem, forgive me princess." He said with a slight bow  
  
"That's all right, but anyway what news do you bring?"  
  
"Well we found princess Tik'al outside in the forest, she said she had escaped from a prison facility with that person." He said nodding towards me  
  
She stood up and walked towards Tik'al.  
  
"It is an honor to have you as our guests, princess."  
  
"Thank you very much, the honor is mine for retrieving us."  
  
"Speaking of which, who is that?"  
  
"That would be my new bodyguard." She said  
  
"Oh really?" she stepped towards me and looked me over  
  
"And who might you be?"  
  
"Phoenix." I said flatly  
  
"And you're supposed to be a bodyguard of some sort?"  
  
"That's what she said, so yes."  
  
"Hmm, where are you from then?"  
  
I had thought about it for a second and decided it wouldn't be the best idea to say I was from Robotnik's research facility.  
  
"I have no idea."  
  
"You don't know where you're from? That doesn't make any sense."  
  
"It doesn't have to."  
  
"Hey watch you mouth." Sonic said angrily  
  
"You should show some respect, my family has ruled this land for generations."  
  
"Well with Robotnik around that changed pretty quick didn't it?"  
  
"How about I have you detained for insubordination?"  
  
"I don't think so, I'm not one of your subjects so you can't do something like that; especially a little thing such as yourself." I said  
  
The room got very quiet all of a sudden, aside from the beeping of controls and the hum of machinery.  
  
"Is that a fact?"  
  
"It is." I said defiantly  
  
"Phoenix." Tik'al said pulling on my arm  
  
"What?"  
  
"Stop being rude, we're guests here."  
  
I said nothing and just sighed and nodded my head in agreement.  
  
"Well then, I hope we've come to an understanding about who's in charge here." Princess Sally said glaring at me  
  
"Whatever."  
  
"Anyway, how goes the resistance on the ground?"  
  
"Well things could be going better, we've been seeing more of Robotnik's armies swarming around these days; It's a shame that your people don't want to be involved with what's going on down here."  
  
"Well the elder council had said it was best not to change the old ways and not get involved with land dweller affairs since the Master Emerald protects us."  
  
"It must be nice to float above everyone else's problems and stay in your own little world." Sally said  
  
"Believe me I want to help; but the way things work, I just don't have any real influence up there." She sighed, "I'm just a figure head to represent in for the peace treaty that was made decades ago between our people." Tik'al said sadly  
  
"Sometimes clinging to old ways isn't the best thing to do."  
  
I had been thinking about this entire conversation as it went on; Master Emerald was the main thing that kept ringing in my mind, it sounded so familiar but so strange. I wonder if it had anything to do with that vision I had inside of that vehicle. Before I could try and piece any more of the mystery together someone calling my name interrupted my thoughts.  
  
"Phoenix!" Tik'al shouted pushing me  
  
"What?"  
  
"You've been standing there in a daze what's wrong with you?"  
  
"I was thinking about something."  
  
"Well you can do that later, it's getting late and I'm tired." She said walking off with another guard out the door.  
  
"We'll have transportation to the Island tomorrow." Sally said as the doors opened  
  
"Well that was certainly interesting." I said as we walked down a hallway  
  
"It could've gone better if you weren't so rude." Tik'al said over her shoulder  
  
"I wasn't being that rude."  
  
"Hmm."  
  
"That's enough about me, what about you?"  
  
"What about me?"  
  
"From what I heard you aren't really in charge where you come from."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"And supposedly a group higher up on the chain of command is pulling all the strings, correct?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"I'm pretty sure that united, your two peoples could possibly bring that madman down."  
  
"We need more than superior numbers to do that."  
  
"That's true, sometimes what's needed is just one person and a whole lot of skill and luck."  
  
We continued down the hallway and came to a large wooden door; its polished surface reflected the light of the hallway. The guard opened the door and we walked in, I examined the room and saw that it was quite elegant.  
  
"I bid you good night, princess Tik'al." The guard said as he closed the door and left  
  
"This must be a special room for royal guests, huh?"  
  
"It's where I usually stay when I come here for visits."  
  
It was at this time I had another one of those strange feelings, like I was being watched or something. I walked over to a bed that was sitting next to a window and began staring outside; through the reinforced glass all I saw was darkness.  
  
"What are you doing?" She asked me lying down on a different bed  
  
"Do you feel like we're being watched or something?"  
  
"Um, no."  
  
"Well I do." I said looking more carefully into the dark shroud that was the night and managed to catch a glimpse of something, a glint of light reflecting back towards me.  
  
'What was that?'  
  
'Unable to determine, scans are inconclusive'  
  
'I'll just assume that was an I don't know'  
  
"Maybe I should go and check that out." I said standing up  
  
"Relax, there are guards patrolling at all times so you don't need to go outside to do anything; now go to sleep."  
  
"I'm telling you I saw something off in the distance."  
  
"It's just you imagination."  
  
"I don't even know if I have an imagination anymore."  
  
"Just go to sleep already."  
  
"Alright," I said lying down, "but I'm pretty sure that trees don't light up at night." "Light up?" Tik'al whispered out loud  
  
Well I finally got another chapter up and around, sorry that took so long but I haven't been able to get to a computer long enough to do any real typing, but I'm back and better than ever, btw I'm writing my stories by piecing together descriptions from other stories and altering them for my own personal view. 


	9. Secrets and Shadows in the Night

The darkness of the night concealed the figure as he moved silently through the treetops, his thoughts focused only on the task that was given to him, to find his target. The sound of the night air rustling through the trees of the forest and the branches swaying back and forth covered the sound of him jumping as he leapt from branch to branch, eventually coming to a stop on a tall oak.  
  
"I have found what seems to be the main base, it was exactly where you said it would be." The figure said into a small, metal, radio, its crackle piercing the quiet silence  
  
"Of course it was where I said it would be," replied a female voice from the radio, "Just make sure you keep track of that guy, it he's what you think he is this war could get very interesting soon."  
  
"I hope so, things are starting to get a bit stale with the standstill both forces have come to."  
  
"Well just make sure you do what you need to do, I've still got some work to do research to do on that other large emerald that was recovered from the ruins by Robotnik."  
  
"Too bad we couldn't get to it before he did, it would've made things much easier."  
  
"You mean that you didn't get to it, right?"  
  
"It's not my fault it was gone when I got there."  
  
"Now we'll have to rely on him to get it back."  
  
"Why don't you just steal it back? You are the jewel thief after all."  
  
"That's too big of a job, even for my skills, besides it's his purpose to get it back anyway."  
  
"Everyone needs a purpose." The figure said as he took out a scope and examined the area ahead  
  
"Just make sure you stay focused, just use those 'people skills' of yours to coax him along and all the pieces will fall into place." Said the female as the transmission was cut and was replaced by the sound of static.  
  
"Guess I better get back to work." He said as he put his radio away just as two guards walked into the clearing below the tree  
  
"Hey did you hear something? Said one of the guards shining a flashlight around into the darkness.  
  
"Hear what?" said the other guard looking around  
  
"I don't know, I thought I heard something." The first guard looked up into the treetops and caught a glimpse of something disappearing into the shadows, "Did you see that?" he said pointing his light upwards  
  
"See what?"  
  
"Up in the trees, I saw...something."  
  
"It was probably just a bird," said the other guard as he continued walking, "Let's get going before we get too far behind in the patrol, you know how the princess is about being organized and such."  
  
"Yeah, alright."  
  
The guards continued off into the forest, their lights disappearing with them as they left. The figure jumped down from the higher braches of the tree to the ground and looked around to make sure it was clear.  
  
"I must be getting sloppy, need to pay more attention." He said jumping back up in the tree and bounding through the branches.  
  
Back inside the palace, Tik'al was busy looking out the window; Phoenix's comment about there being something outside earlier had made it hard for her to sleep. She tried to make out anything significant among the still dark forest.  
  
"Maybe there really was something out there, maybe it was just nothing." She looked again and saw a flicker of light in the distance. "Maybe I should wake Phoenix up and have him take a look." She thought looking over at his still sleeping form on the other bed.  
  
I, on the other hand, was having another strange dream. I could see an island with a massive temple in the middle of it. It all seemed really familiar, just like the last time; the image changed and I was standing inside of a temple, a ghost like image began to approach me and take form. It had taken the shape of a faceless figure clad in a white robe.  
  
'Greetings young one, this meeting has been some time coming." Said the robed figure, its voice echoing all around  
  
'Who are you?' I asked  
  
'Who I am isn't really important right now, just think of me as a friend.'  
  
'What do you want?'  
  
'To tell you something important about your past.'  
  
'My past?'  
  
'Yes, your past as one of the last other guardians.'  
  
'What do you mean?'  
  
'Do you remember the jewel?'  
  
'I don't know, I don't really remember any of this.'  
  
'It was up to you and one other to watch over the sacred jewel, but it has been lost.'  
  
'You're not making any sense.'  
  
'Phoenix!' called another voice, different from the person in front of him  
  
'What?'  
  
'It's time for you to return to consciousness, remember what was discussed here and remember that there is another guardian other than you.' The figure said as it started to fade out of view.  
  
'Phoenix!' the new voice was getting louder and caused me to wake with a start  
  
"What?" I said looking around for the source of the intrusion of my dream  
  
"I've been trying to wake you for a while now." Said Tik'al  
  
"So, that's what that loud sound was." I said laying back down  
  
"Don't go back to sleep, this is important!" she shouted  
  
"Do you realize what time it is?" I said rolling over  
  
"Would you just get up already and look out the window!"  
  
I got out of the bed and looked outside, examining the still dark night for anything unusual.  
  
"Hmm, no one's attacking, the worlds isn't coming to an end, and you don't seem to be in any real danger, can I go back to sleep?"  
  
"No, I've been getting this weird feeling like there's something out there, just watching."  
  
"I'll check again, but I don't see anything."  
  
'Running scans for enemy forces' the computerized voice in my head droned, 'Scanning is inconclusive due to interference'  
  
"I can't find anything out there."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Positive." I said walking back to the bed and lying down  
  
"Well, what about earlier when you said there was something out there?"  
  
"What about it?"  
  
"What do you mean? You were worried earlier and now you act like you don't care."  
  
"Well I can't see anything out there now, so it's not a big deal."  
  
"Maybe, but you should keep an eye out just in case."  
  
"Are you trying to say that I should stay awake for the rest of the night for nothing?"  
  
"It's not nothing, it's intuition."  
  
"Like I said, nothing." I said rolling over  
  
"I thought you were supposed to be watching out for me."  
  
"Hmm."  
  
"Is that all you can say? Is my safety not important to you?"  
  
"Alright already, I'll stay awake and watch out for your scary monsters in the dark." I said sarcastically  
  
"I don't see the humor in that."  
  
"Maybe you're not looking hard enough." I said leaning against the edge of the window  
  
"Have you always been so rude, or was it just something that happened from being altered the way you were?"  
  
"Maybe a little of both."  
  
"Hmm."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Well, I was wondering; have you figured out anything about who you were in your past life; you know, before Robotnik?"  
  
"Um..."  
  
"Anything?"  
  
".... No of course not."  
  
"You're lying." She said, I could feel her gaze focused on me  
  
"Am not." I said shifting uncomfortably  
  
"Are too."  
  
"Well, if you must know, I've been having these weird memories and dreams lately."  
  
"What about?" she had sat up in the bed and crossed her arms  
  
"There's this island, with a great temple on it, and inside there was some large crystal that resembled those smaller chaos emeralds."  
  
"An island with a temple and a large crystal? That sounds like my home; tell me something, was this island in your dream floating at all?"  
  
"Floating? Like Angel Island?"  
  
"Actually, I don't think it was; it was more in the water."  
  
"Hmm, I've never heard of any other emeralds besides the Master Emerald on my island." "Maybe those random memories are clues to my past."  
  
"Possibly, from the sounds of it your past seems to be connected with the ancient history of my people."  
  
"That's a lot to think about." I said taking another look out the window, still seeing nothing  
  
"Maybe when we go to the island in the morning we can consult with the Elders and see if they know anything."  
  
"Go to the island? You mean flying though the sky to get there?" I asked feeling slightly uneasy about the whole thought  
  
"Yes; what's wrong with you?"  
  
"I don't think I can go up there."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"That's a little too high for me, just thinking about it makes me sick for some reason."  
  
"Oh I see, you're afraid of heights." She said laughing  
  
"No I'm not!"  
  
"A tough guy like yourself being afraid of something so silly is rather humorous."  
  
"I'm not afraid, it's just some weird feeling that I can't explain."  
  
"Could it be...fear?" she said jokingly  
  
"That's it, I'm going for a walk outside." I said heading towards the door  
  
"What's wrong, did I hurt your feelings or something?'  
  
"I just need some air."  
  
"Aren't you supposed to be watching over me? What if I get kidnapped while you're gone?"  
  
"That'll be a bit of a problem won't it?"  
  
"Phoenix!"  
  
"You'll be fine." I said opening the large door and closing it rather hard  
  
I continued down the hall and gazed around, the windows that lined the hall didn't really allow for much of a view, possibly a defensive measure in case this place were discovered. As I walked I took more notice of the scenery that I had missed on the way in; grand paintings lined the walls depicting previous rulers most likely since they all seemed to resemble the princess that ran things around here. The night air filled the palace and the cool air brushed up against my skin as I continued my journey; after a while I could hear voices echoing slightly from the central command room. I quietly walked up to it and tried to listen for what was being said on the other side. At first it was just a murmur, barely audible enough to make anything out, the sound of electronic machinery droning on persistently and footsteps from heavy boots clicking loudly over everything.  
  
'I can't hear anything' I thought to myself  
  
'Enhancing audio' clicked the computer voice in my mind as the sounds and voices became louder and much clearer  
  
"What have you found so far?"  
  
'That authoritative tone has to be Sally' I thought as I continued listening  
  
"The instruments have been picking up strange readings since princess Tik'al and her guest arrived."  
  
"Strange reading like what?"  
  
"There are two of them and they seem similar to the frequencies that come from the chaos emeralds."  
  
"Have you pinpointed their locations?"  
  
"Well um..."  
  
"Have you found them or not?"  
  
"Well one of them is difficult to lock on to and its location is not yet confirmed, we've come to the conclusion that it's, well moving around outside."  
  
'Two more of those emeralds, and they are moving?' I thought about it for a moment and couldn't possibly think of what the two sources of the energy could be.  
  
"What about the other one?" Sally continued  
  
"Well it seems to be inside the palace, but that's not even the weird part."  
  
"What's else is there?"  
  
"Ever since we had detected it we've always found it to be near princess Tik'al for some reason."  
  
"Near the princess? How near?"  
  
"Only a about two or three feet mostly."  
  
"Hmm; that supposed 'bodyguard', is he possibly in possession of one of the emeralds?"  
  
"I was just thinking that very thing."  
  
"Check the scans again, I want to be sure before we decide to attempt to confiscate the emerald from him."  
  
"So that we could add it to the one we already have and get the project underway?"  
  
"Precisely."  
  
'Project? I wonder what that could be about.' I thought for a second, at least until another thought interrupted me, "That other emerald signature must be from the one inside of me." I said out loud, but then silencing myself and looking to see if anyone had heard me.  
  
'No one around, I hope.' I said relaxing my tense muscles and turning to walk back to the room upstairs when I heard a loud swoosh from the door I was just listening through. I turned and looked and came face to face with Sally.  
  
"What are you doing lurking around outside of this door?" she snapped at me  
  
"I was just taking a walk." I said as she continued glaring at me  
  
"I doubt that."  
  
We stared each other down for several seconds before I turned to leave.  
  
"I think I'll go back to the room now."  
  
"I'll be watching you very carefully."  
  
"I would expect as much." I said annoyed as I walked back up the stairs  
  
When I got back to the room I had opened the door and stepped silently inside. Tik'al had fallen asleep while I was gone it seemed and it was probably a good idea for me to as well, though it would be hard doing that with the idea of someone sneaking up on me at night so I stayed awake for a while longer just thinking.  
  
'Tomorrow's going to be a very interesting day...' 


	10. Refugees

I opened my eyes and noticed the morning sun had risen bringing yet another 'interesting' day. Outside the window I could hear the sounds of birds chirping and the trees swaying, along with some other sound that seemed unfamiliar. I stretched a bit and got out of bed and took a look outside of the window and saw the source of the strange sound. On the ground in a small central area a small transport was hovering near the palace gates and surrounded by soldiers. The sun's light was reflecting off the slick red metal frame of the sizeable aircraft nearly blinding me a forcing me to move to a different angle. As I looked on I noticed that it resembled a transport craft I saw inside of the prison base when Tik'al and I had made our escape, this one was possibly salvaged and made operational somehow.  
  
"I guess it's time to take to the skies." I looked around the room and noticed that Tik'al was gone already. I looked the bed over noticing it had been made and was nice and neat. I walked over to the door and it opened suddenly, Tik'al was standing there in the doorway and seemed to be annoyed about something.  
  
"Do you realize what time it is?" she said pulling me out of the room and leading me down the hall  
  
"Morning?" I said trying to keep up with her unusually brisk pace  
  
"Yes it's morning, everyone's waiting for us outside and you've been wasting time sleeping."  
  
"What? Wasting time sleeping? I was up most of the night because you were scared of monsters or something in the dark."  
  
"I was not, and it's your own fault for saying something about seeing something in the first place, if you hadn't I wouldn't have been concerned about it."  
  
"So it's my fault now? Maybe next time I'll just ignore you and stay asleep."  
  
"You do that." She said as we stepped outside into the sun  
  
"Could you let go of my arm now? This feels a little undignified with you leading me around by the hand."  
  
"Well I wouldn't have to if you were awake on time." She said as she let go of my arm and continued walking  
  
"You know you're awfully...what's the word I'm looking for?"  
  
"What word?" she said giving me one of those stern looks, which reminded me of how Sally was looking at me last night  
  
"You're being rather royal today."  
  
"I won't even ask what that means." She said as she waked into the area where the aircraft, and Sally and some other familiar faces were waiting. That hedgehog, Sonic, and his little fox friend were also standing there next to the aircraft; it seemed that they were to take us up to Angel Island.  
  
"We're ready to go now princess Sally." Tik'al said with a slight bow  
  
"Good, the ship will leave for the island immediately." Sally said  
  
I began to follow Tik'al onto the ship when Sally had stepped in front of me, which I of course knew was just the start of a series of questions I don't need to answer.  
  
"Before you go Phoenix, I have something I need to ask you about" She said  
  
"What about?"  
  
"We've received some rather strange readings lately that seem to suggest a chaos emerald in your possession, you wouldn't happen to have you would you?"  
  
"Hmm, that wouldn't happen to be a gem about this big, glows a lot and filled with infinite energy would it?"  
  
"So you do have one then?" narrowing her eyes  
  
"I have no idea what you're talking about."  
  
"I think you do." She said stepping forward as the soldiers around the aircraft drew their weapons on me, the riffles cocking all around me.  
  
"I think I'll just be going in the plane now." I said trying to push past her, only to be pushed back again  
  
"Don't make me have to resort to violence, it's too early for that sort of thing." She said glaring at me  
  
"Hmph, even if I did have one of those do you honestly think you'd have force enough to take it? With all that power I wouldn't fear you, your threats, or anything for that matter."  
  
"Hmm, as much sense as that makes I still don't believe you, not for a minute."  
  
"Well, that sounds like a problem you'll have to work out some other time." I said, slightly irritated that this was not going to be over without just coming out and telling them where the thing was, not that I myself understood what was going on when it seemed to merge with me when I found it  
  
"I think we'll work it out right now." I turned and saw that it belonged to Sonic  
  
"Oh great, you're going to give me a piece of your mind."  
  
"Yeah, and you're going to hand over that emerald."  
  
"Alright fine!" I shouted, causing some of the less than bold guards to flinch a bit, "You want to know where the thing is? Well it's right here." I said gesturing towards my chest  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sonic said  
  
"I'm not entirely sure myself; when I found the emerald it...merged with my body and I haven't seen the thing since then."  
  
"And you expect us to believe that?" She said, obviously not convinced  
  
I merely shook my head in frustration, "Either you can believe that or we can fight about it." I said flexing my right arm and unsheathing my claws, just in case it was necessary  
  
"You don't really plan on starting something here do you? You'll be killed before you have the chance to even make a move." She motioned to the guns the guards were carrying  
  
"Trust me, I could have your throat in my hands before you come close to killing me." I said leaning forward slightly  
  
"And what good would that do you?"  
  
"I have a feeling you'll make a good shield to stop any bullets that happen to fly my way."  
  
"Oh really? I think I can take you on myself if I had to."  
  
"Bold words from someone so small." I said pushing past her one last time and stopping in the doorway of the plane, "If you still want the emerald the next time you see me, then you can take it from me however you please...if you even can." I said walking inside the ship  
  
As I stepped into the aircraft, Tik'al was standing there waiting for me. From the looks of things I could tell she was somewhat annoyed.  
  
"Something the matter?" I asked  
  
"I heard you out there!" she said waving a finger at me, "You can't go around threatening to kill people, especially my friends!"  
  
"Calm down, I wasn't really going to do kill anyone." I said as the engines roared to life and the craft began to lift higher off of the ground.  
  
"Well I don't remember you saying that out there."  
  
"I didn't need to, they were the ones pointing the guns and threatening to 'use force' to get the stupid emerald inside of me."  
  
She merely sighed and shook her head, then walked over to me and pulled my head down to level with hers.  
  
"Promise me you won't try and kill anyone, alright?"  
  
I wanted to say no, but with her standing that close to me, staring me right in the eyes like that I couldn't help but just nod my head.  
  
"And another thing, when we get back I want you to apologize."  
  
"That's pushing it."  
  
"Phoenix!"  
  
"I'll think about it." I said pulling away from her before I caved in and changed my mind again.  
  
"I'll just assume that's a yes."  
  
The ship began to change direction and increase in pitch as our speed picked up.  
  
"We should sit down now." I said picking her up by the waist and walking her over to one of the seats  
  
"Put me down!" she said squirming  
  
"As you bodyguard I insist you take your seat for your own safety." I said putting her down in a chair  
  
"So now you want to be professional? After that mess you almost made back on the ground?"  
  
"Well I'm not really a bodyguard am I?" I said sitting down in another seat  
  
"That's right, you're an escaped prisoner."  
  
"So are you."  
  
"I'm royalty, a princess if you remember."  
  
"Oh yes your highness." I said mocking a salute as she laughed  
  
"So how are we going to kill time until we get to the island?"  
  
"Why don't you tell me more about the place? As far as I know this is the first time I've even been off the ground."  
  
She began regaling me with the history of the island and explaining her life as the princess of the island. As she talked my little internal computer was documenting all of the relevant information that was discussed, especially once she got to a certain subject.  
  
"...is the master emerald that keeps the island floating in the air."  
  
"The what?" I said intrigued  
  
"The master emerald, it's power keeps it us safe in the sky as long as it's on the island."  
  
"Interesting, well from what little I do know about the island, the entire thing would drop from the sky if the master emerald were taken from the shrine, correct?"  
  
"Yeah, it's happened once or twice in the past." Looking down at the ground  
  
"Hmm, really? Must've been awful dropping down like that from such a height."  
  
"Of course."  
  
"Hmm."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Nothing, I'm just bored." I said tapping my finger on the arm of the seat  
  
"So you're saying I'm boring you or something?"  
  
"...Maybe." I said looking to the side and noticing she was looking down at her feet, "I was just joking you know, I'm just now getting accustomed to the faster paced lifestyle that I've experienced lately."  
  
"Well it's not an excuse to be rude to me; you do owe me for getting you out of that prison by the way." She said leaning her hand to her cheek and turning to look out the window  
  
"Oh really? Well from what I remember I was the one that did most of the work, carrying you around and dealing with robotic guards." I said laughing lightly  
  
"Your memory must be slipping, if I hadn't picked the lock on those chains you were bound in you'd be getting cut open by now."  
  
"That's funny, I was just thinking how you'd be getting turned into a mindless drone of a robot if I hadn't decided to take you with me."  
  
"I would've figured a way out of there sooner or later."  
  
"How's that? Use your overpowering strength to force your way out? Or maybe just use your female charm to get the good doctor to let you go."  
  
"Well I don't know about the 'overpowering strength, but the female charm works rather well, it got you to help me didn't it?"  
  
"How do you figure that?" I said looking her in the eyes  
  
"Well you wouldn't have just left me there if you could have gotten out of those chains, would you?"  
  
"Well..." I started  
  
"You wouldn't have left me and all the other prisoners there to be enslaved to that 'mindless robotic drone life', would you?"  
  
"I suppose, my conscience probably wouldn't have let me leave without doing so." I said, although I knew it to be somewhat of a life as I remembered how I only let the other prisoners out so they'd distract the guards throughout the building to give us a chance to get out.  
  
'I wonder what happened to them?' I thought remembering how they took off in a panicked mob  
  
Just then the door the pilot's cabin opened the one of them stepped out and gave a small salute.  
  
"Princes Tik'al please excuse my interruption, but we just received an urgent report from Knothole." The pilot said, somewhat stressed  
  
"What has happened?"  
  
"One of our field operatives has reported finding a band of refugees from one of Dr. Robotonick's prisons, Princess Sally has requested for us to try to retrieve them since many of them are Freedom Fighters, if it's not too much trouble for you your highness."  
  
"Don't be silly, of course it's not a problem, I insist we pick them up."  
  
"At once your highness." Said the guard as he slipped back into the room  
  
"I wonder..."  
  
"What?" Tik'al said  
  
"If those refugees that they are talking about were the ones that I let out of the prison cells?"  
  
"Well if they are I'm sure they'll be happy to see you, after setting them free and everything."  
  
"I guess."  
  
I felt the ship take a sharp turn to the right and angle downward, as I looked out a nearby window, I could see the forest coming into view as we descended from the clouds over a small clearing and began to land. The smaller trees and plants swayed as the backwash from the vertical lift jets on the bottom of the craft leveled us out and we touched down. The doors to the pilot cabin opened again and both of them stepped out into the room.  
  
"Princess we shall go and retrieve the refugees while you wait inside the ship." One of the soldiers arming himself with a large rifle and a small sidearm  
  
"Actually, I'd rather go out there and see to that personally."  
  
"But princess, it could be dangerous out there, I insist that you..."  
  
"Your objection is noted but I'll be fine." She said standing and walking over to me, "Besides, I have my bodyguard to watch out for me."  
  
"I guess that means it's time for me to get to work then, huh?" I said looking up at her  
  
"Who else?"  
  
"Alright, I'm coming." I got up and followed her outside through the steel door of the dropship  
  
"So where is this group of escapees anyway?" I said as she started walking and I followed  
  
"You tell me, you're the one with the high tech sensors and such."  
  
"So is that supposed to mean I can just find them easily or something?"  
  
"You have a better chance of it than I do, I'm just here as a familiar face to reassure the huddled masses."  
  
"Well once again I'm stuck doing the legwork I guess." I said as my internal computer began scanning the surrounding area for any large life signs  
  
"You would've done it anyway so I don't see what the problem is."  
  
"I suppose."  
  
'There's that conscience nagging away in the back of my mind again with it's 'do the right thing' feeling again.  
  
Lifeforms detected appox. 50 meters ahead the computer monotoned out.  
  
"I found them." I said pointing strait ahead through some dense undergrowth  
  
"Told you that you could find them."  
  
"Well it's not like you could've done it yourself."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"You...well, don't have any of those all too important survival skills."  
  
"And you do?"  
  
"Yes." I said as we pushed our way through the tree and low hanging brush  
  
"If I remember right, you were captured just like I was; where were you survival skills then?"  
  
"I was merely overcome by unusual circumstances, it won't happen again."  
  
"Sure you were."  
  
"Now that I think about it, how did you get captured anyway?" I said stopping  
  
"Hey look there's the group we're looking for." She said pushing aside the last bit of brush blocking the 'path' we were taking  
  
'Changing the subject I see.' I thought shaking my head as I continued walking  
  
In the clearing was a group of ragged looking prisoners, the very same ones that were in the prison we had escaped from. With them were a few armed soldiers that had probably seen better days from the look of their injuries, possibly from fighting with would be pursuers. I began to notice that most of the prisoners had their eyes trained on me, hopefully not with some violent intentions of some sort.  
  
"It's..." one of them began to speak  
  
"Him! The one who freed us from the prison!"  
  
"Yes, he saved us!"  
  
They began gathering around me cheering and such making a big commotion, needless to say I wasn't expecting, nor deserving of such admiration.  
  
"Looks like you're a hero today."  
  
"Yeah, looks like it." Tik'al laughed  
  
'Not that it should be that way.' I thought with all the prisoners still surrounding me  
  
(School has been a killer lately and I've had trouble getting around to writing, but I'll get back to it more often now that I've gotten some free time coming. More chapters on the way so keep reviewing.) 


	11. Unwelcomed Hero

Hero, that phrase echoed in my mind over and over again. Such a word shouldn't be used to describe me at the time, especially after what had happened at the prison base. Speaking of which the refugees were still clamoring about and giving their words of praise and thanks, although some of them had moved around Tik'al and were giving her the usual 'princess' this and 'your majesty' that. I glanced around and counted them all and noticed that quite a few of them were missing, possibly from being captured or worse yet killed. Though being killed might've been the most painless fate since the captured were taken back and transformed into machine slaves. I guess it was best not to think too much about it.  
  
"I was wondering," I said looking to one of the prisoners, "There more of you than this when you were escaping, what happened to the others?"  
  
"They...didn't make it out of the base with the rest of us, most were killed or too wounded to continue and were most likely retaken prisoner." He said sadly  
  
'Just as I thought,' I frowned at the thought of those that didn't make it being shot down and it made me cringe, 'I probably could've saved them had I taken the time, or at least taken them with me when I took Tik'al instead of letting them run off in a frenzy.'  
  
"I think we should get going before we get some unexpected company." I said turning to Tik'al  
  
"Alright, everyone follow me." She said motioning for everyone to gather up and follow  
  
We began walking back through the trail we had came through back to the ship when I had noticed that during all my thinking the forest had become unusually quiet. No birds, no animals, not even the slightest sound save the footsteps of our group.  
  
'Strange reading detected, closing fast'  
  
I looked around but didn't see anything at first, but I started to get a bizarre feeling, something like a chill going through my spine.  
  
"Phoenix, what are you looking for?"  
  
I heard Tik'al's voice but didn't answer her at first I was still getting some ominous feeling shooting through my whole body.  
  
"Phoenix, can you hear me?"  
  
"Something's coming, but I'm not sure what it is."  
  
"What should we do?"  
  
"You should keep walking with the rest of the group and take them back to the ship, I'm going to handle whatever this is."  
  
"Alright, if you're sure, just don't get yourself hurt."  
  
"I'll do my best." I said walking off toward where I think the enemy was  
  
I walked for several minutes looking around and listening to my computer informing me of something moving around in my general area, but I couldn't find anything on the ground or in the brush.  
  
'If there's something out here I should've seen it by now' I thought, 'the only place I haven't looked would be the...trees.'  
  
I looked up and was immediately slammed into by some large heavy object dropping from the air and rolling away from me. Had I been someone else that might've killed me, luckily I was a bit more resilient than most.  
  
"What the hell was that?" I thought sitting up and looking around  
  
To my right I saw a figure standing in the light, right in the path of the sun and making it hard to make out the form. At first I saw an outline, it seemed to be the hedgehog I met earlier, the light reflecting off his body made it hard to see.  
  
'Wait a minute, light doesn't reflect so blindingly off skin' I thought holding my hand up to my face and squinting harder against the glare. It was a robot.  
  
'Target identified as Metal, anti-Sonic combat unit used to seek and destroy Sonic, has since been reprogrammed, current objective unknown, behavior suggests the capture or destruction of unit Phoenix.'  
  
I stood up and looked over my attacker from a less blinding angle. The machine was a almost an exact copy down to the last detail physically, aside from the dead black and red eyes that stared back at my solid blue ones. He seemed to be looking me over just as I was doing him, most likely preparing to attack. I decided to open up for conversation and get some answers.  
  
"Who are you?" I said breaking the silence  
  
I was returned with was the same never ending silence and incessant staring.  
  
"Are you here to destroy me or just take me back to that filthy prison?"  
  
The figure just stood motionless and silent.  
  
"Can you even talk at?" I said slightly annoyed  
  
"Yes." It said in a rather metallic voice, there was also some static present, but too little to notice very well, it was like a radio transmission clicking on and off  
  
"Well how about answering me? What do you want?"  
  
"I am here to take back the emerald that's inside of you." His voice clicked  
  
"I suppose the doctor wants me back dead or alive, correct?"  
  
"Your return isn't of any concern to anyone, my primary objective is the emerald."  
  
"I hope you don't mind me defending myself." I said shifting my body to a combative position instinctively  
  
"It will be a futile effort." He said taking a similar position, almost mimicking me  
  
We just stood at first, waiting for one another to make the first move. I assumed it would be him, but he just remained motionless. It was silent enough to even hear the servos in his eyes focused his sights on me. I decided that sooner would be better than later in striking so I quickly charged him. I thrust my palm at him and was met with a mirrored strike of his own, I tried to thrust my claws at him with my other hand and was countered once again with his own claws, sparks flew from the contact of my sharp claws against his metal hand. I jumped back and he did the same, it seemed as if he knew exactly how I fight. We fought for what seemed like hours, strike after strike he matched me and repelled my fastest hits and most skilled blows, this fight was going to drag on eternally, unless I did something different, something that he couldn't do; then an idea hit me. I swung my foot for a high kick to his head and as I expected he did the same, both of our legs hitting together, then I swept my tail at his still grounded leg and knocked him off his feet and then, using a great deal of strength, I continued my kick but instead striking down towards his off balanced body and slamming him toward the ground. The advantage seemed to be mine until he stopped his fall and did a handspring back up and kicked me squarely in the chest with both of his feet, sending me backwards several feet into a tree. He charged again before I had a chance to regain my composure and slammed the back of my head into the solid bark and held me in a chokehold.  
  
"As I said a futile effort." He clicked applying more pressure to my throat and lifting me up several inches off the ground  
  
I tried to force him off but was unsuccessful, though our strength seemed even he had more leverage than I did, still having his feet firmly planted on the ground. My vision began to go blurry as it got harder to breathe; I began to have another vision like before, the island in the ocean, the temple, this time I saw myself out in a field it looked like I was with someone, they were impossible to make out but I could hear a conversation.  
  
"You must concentrate if you want to harness the energy, it's not about strength of body but of the mind."  
  
The first voice seemed familiar but was still a mystery to me  
  
"I understand, but how am I suppose to will it to do what I want?"  
  
The second one was easy enough, that was the sound of my voice  
  
"It's nearly impossible to completely control it, for it has a will of it's own so to speak."  
  
I wonder what energy I was talking to this guy about?  
  
"You talk as if it's alive or something."  
  
"Perhaps it is, no one knows for sure."  
  
"I'll try again then."  
  
I saw the image of myself holding out his palm and then a strange light seemed to form around it, it glowed slightly, then the image of me held out his hand towards a large boulder and the energy shot forward and smashed it to pieces.  
  
"Very good, you're learning." Said the mysterious voice  
  
My mind wandered back to reality and to my dire situation, I was still being held in a death grip by my enemy and was still more or less helpless.  
  
'I wish I had some of that energy I just saw in that vision' I thought to myself, 'Wait a minute, the emerald inside of me, it's full of it. Maybe I can use it just the same, Chaos energy is still energy.'  
  
I closed my eyes and began to concentrate, I felt a warm feeling flowing over me, I could feel a tingling sensation in my arm traveling down to the tips of my fingers and gathering in my palm.  
  
"Prepare to die." I heard Metal say as I opened my eyes to his free hand pointing towards my heart. A panel in his wrist slid back and a weapon of some sort popped into view; I could hear the sound of it humming to life and saw his eyes glowing a brighter red light, I felt the heat from his hand against my skin and realized it was now or never.  
  
"I have a better idea." I said slamming my palm into is chest and straining under the thunderous blast from my hand and wincing from the burn where a laser blast from his weapon had seared my flesh on my chest, away from my heart luckily. I fell limp against the tree and he fell several feet from me on the ground. His body was sparking with the strange newfound energy that I had hit him with and my chest was smoking from the burn that I had received. I managed to stand feeling lightheaded, whether it was from using that energy or from being suffocated for the last several minutes I wasn't sure but didn't care. Metal got to his feet and looked himself over noting the damage, then at me noticing my injuries.  
  
"So you've remembered." He said  
  
"What are you talking about?" I asked puzzled  
  
"We shall continue this when I have made repairs, but rest assured you will die." He said turning and slightly limping back a few steps  
  
"Wait, what did you mean about that 'you've remembered' remark?"  
  
He simply glared at me once again and then moved his hand away from his chest and I saw it, a chaos emerald, a green one.  
  
"You have one as well?"  
  
He looked up at the sky then back down at me for a moment.  
  
"Till' we meet again...chaos control!" I shielded my eyes as he vanished in a flash leaving nothing more than a pair of footprints in the dirt of the forest floor.  
  
I decided that it was time to get back to the ship before he decided on a rematch and quickly limped off towards the clearing where everyone was. With much effort I made my way back and saw Tik'al still standing around outside of the ship.  
  
"Phoenix what happened? You've been gone for more than a while."  
  
"I had a little bit of a fight with someone, but I'm fine." I said falling down to one knee  
  
"You've got cuts and wounds all over, let me help you up."  
  
"No, it's alright, I just need to get my second wind."  
  
"Looks like that got knocked out of you a long time ago." She laughed  
  
"Yeah that's just what I need after a life threatening battle, a nice healthy dose of sarcasm." I said struggling to my feet again  
  
"Well I'm still going to help you inside." She said helping me steady myself  
  
"If you insist." I said as she helped me to the door of the ship and we walked inside and were greeted by one of the pilots.  
  
"Princess what happened out there?"  
  
"Well..." she started but I cut her off  
  
"Nothing, it was nothing."  
  
He eyed me a bit looking over my injuries; I could still feel the burn from the laser blast, which was the most painful nothing I've ever been hit with.  
  
"I know what happened," said one of the survivors, my eyes darted towards him, hoping he was just making it up. The ship was quiet with anticipation, for his next words, "The swatbot patrols caught up with us and attacked but he put himself at risk to save us, didn't you?"  
  
Everyone looked to me for a response, "Yeah, I fought them off."  
  
"Princess shall we leave?" asked the pilot from before  
  
"Yes, let's." she said escorting me to a seat  
  
I sat down gently and she took a seat next to me; the ship began to power up again and take off, I began to drift off to sleep hoping those wounds would heal by themselves like before. As the ship lifted higher into the air I felt something warm resting on my shoulder, I opened my eyes a bit and noticed that Tik'al had rested her head on me and was sleeping herself.  
  
'Maybe I can be a hero after all.' I thought as started to close my eyes when I felt that strange chill again, 'Feels like something is still following us.' I thought giving into my fatigue.  
  
The night seemed to pass rather quickly as the rising sun's rays washed over my face and stirred me to consciousness. I looked out the window and saw the sun peeking through the clouds, lighting up the sky with several different shades of red, yellow, and orange. I leaned closer to the window and noticed that we seemed to be rather close to the ground, I squinted a bit and noticed that there was a large land mass underneath the closest layer of clouds below the airship.  
  
"We're finally here." I heard Tik'al say looking out the window as well  
  
"Almost where? That's still looks like the ground from here." I said a bit confused  
  
"That is the ground, more or less."  
  
"Don't tell me that's Angel Island."  
  
"Yes, what did you expect?"  
  
"Something that doesn't look like someone just sliced off a piece of the ground a placed it in the sky."  
  
The ship started to descend through the clouds towards the supposed island and gave me my first good look at what the big mystery was. As it came into view I began to see that it was a breathtaking sight to behold, it was dotted with many impressive looking structures that appeared to be temples and such; even from this height it was easy to tell that they were well crafted. The ship continued it's path and flew towards one of larger buildings and began to slow; I looked down and could see the inhabitants of the island, they walked the stone streets back and forth some standing in small clusters and gathering around our landing point.  
  
"What's this building here?" I said pointing to the majestic structure  
  
"That would be the palace." Tik'al said sitting up  
  
"I see, and all those people out there must be your followers, right?"  
  
"Well, yes and no."  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Well at any rate I guess we should be getting off, I just hope I'm not going to cause a problem by being here."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well it's pretty obvious that you don't get many guests up here in the sky, am I right?"  
  
"I see what you mean."  
  
"Which makes me wonder if I should even be walking around with you anymore."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Well I'm assuming you've got guards around here somewhere don't you? Everyone might find it a bit unsettling to have a stranger following their beloved leader around, don't you think?"  
  
"Well I insist that you stay with me, you are my personal guard, and besides, we're good friends now, right?" She said getting up and pulling me along  
  
"Can't argue with that." I said following out into the sunlight  
  
The ship had been surrounded soon after it landed and everyone filed out of it, happy to be safe and sound. I looked around as she lead me and everyone else up numerous steps, waving and greeting the other echidnas that gave her small bows and such, and giving me strange looks, probably wondering who I was or something.  
  
"Well this is going better than I hoped." I said as we came to the large doorway inside of the palace and went inside  
  
"So where are we going to go?" I asked as we continued down a wide hall lined with what I thought to be guards  
  
"I have to go meet with the council elders."  
  
"And they would be?"  
  
"The ones who are actually in charge around here."  
  
"Hmm, well then now might be a good time to let go of my hand then."  
  
"Oh, sorry." She said letting go and continuing with me following  
  
We came to yet another large door at the end of the hall; two guards were standing a diligent watch in front of it.  
  
"I'm here to see the elders." She said  
  
They stood silent for a minute and looked at me, then back at her.  
  
"He's my guest, he's coming with me."  
  
They nodded and pulled open the doors and let us through; we walked into the dimly lit chamber that was lined with torches and the walls adorned with elaborate tapestries. In the middle of the room sat a set of ornate throne room chairs, and in them sat three echidnas. It was easy to tell that they were of great importance; their grand garments were proof of this.  
  
"Council Elders I have returned from my trip." Tik'al started  
  
"So it seems." said the male one in the middle  
  
"You little trips to the ground are becoming quite the problem as of late." Said a female  
  
"Well I thought it was important to keep good relations with..." The third member of the council cut her off before she could finish  
  
"Well it isn't, and we can't have you getting into that barbaric war going on down there." The male in the middle, possibly the lead member, seemed to take over the rest of the talking from that point  
  
"If we only gave them our help then the fighting could be stopped, Robotonick's terrorizing everyone down there while we just sit up here and turn a blind eye to everything that's going on."  
  
"It is because of that very reason we are safer up here than down there."  
  
"But for how long? We can't hide up here forever, whether we want to or not, we're soon going to be playing a part in this war."  
  
"Such words might be considered treasonous, you should watch your tongue."  
  
"Why is wanting to help such a bad thing?"  
  
"You are too young to understand."  
  
"So you think that my youth makes me ignorant?"  
  
"No but it makes you foolish; putting yourself in danger constantly, sympathizing with the plight of those on the ground."  
  
"But..."  
  
"No! And it is because of this that the council has decided to ban you from leaving the island until further notice, maybe then you'll come to appreciate life up here." His voice echoes throughout the room  
  
"I understand." She said sadly  
  
"Which brings us to another matter, who is this with your?"  
  
"He is a friend of mine, we've been traveling together while I was away."  
  
"Stranger what is your name?"  
  
"Phoenix." I stated, "And about what you said earlier about this place being safe, I think you should know that you are wrong."  
  
The room became unnervingly quiet all of a sudden, save the burning of the torches.  
  
"And what would you know about anything that goes on up here?"  
  
"I know that this place isn't exactly as well hidden as you think."  
  
"Are you to tell me that after thousands of years of this island being safe from harm, you believe the princess here and agree that suddenly we're in danger, is that correct?"  
  
"I'm positive of it."  
  
"Princess I believe that your guests should leave as soon as possible and not return, especially this one." He said pointing at me  
  
"Yes elder." She said leaving I looked back at them for a moment myself  
  
"If I remember right, this place has fallen from the sky more than once, you people have a strange definition of the word safe." I said following her out the doors, as they were pulled shut behind us.  
  
"I think he is one of them." Said the female  
  
"I thought they had all died out in the incident from before." Said the second male  
  
"Apparently one of them survived." The female said again  
  
"Order the guards to keep an eye on him until he leaves...and if need be, kill him if necessary." Said the lead elder  
  
Well I finally updated, wasn't here to write before since I took a trip out of town for a week, luckily I got a bit of inspiration and managed to write this in two days, 3615 words is a bit of typing, oh well. Read and review, or just review since you had to read to even get to the part down here anyway 


	12. Conspiracy?

The jungle air was thick with humidity and the sound of birds chirping in the trees; the crunching of fallen branches and brush being pushed aside could be heard amongst the sound of someone faintly cursing as a black hedgehog stepped into a clearing.  
  
"Damn jungle," Shadow cursed swatting the cloud of mosquitoes away from his face, "Don't know why I have to do all the leg work Rouge." He said into the small radio he carried  
  
"Well I would help you out, but someone has to be the brains of the operation, you're just the brawn." She said  
  
"Well anyway, I made my way onto the island and I located the target."  
  
"How'd you get all the way up there anyway?" Rouge asked  
  
"Well I tailed the airship until it made an unexpected stop to pick up a bunch of prisoners and then used chaos control to get onto the roof when it took off again about half an hour later."  
  
"Half an hour? Just to load a few escapees?"  
  
"No, most of that time our little target had been engaged by the metal sonic robot, it was a rather interesting fight."  
  
"Glad you're enjoying yourself out there watching people kill each other." She said sarcastically  
  
"It helps pass the time." He said pushing his way through the jungle  
  
"Anyway, I think that now would be a good time to get this plan of ours moving."  
  
"Do you even remember what to do?"  
  
"Of course; I need to get the target to the other island along with both master emeralds, then just sit back and watch this little war reach it's climactic end."  
  
"Whatever, just make sure you don't screw it up." She said  
  
"Bye the way, have you found out anything new while you're living it up in your hideout in the city?"  
  
"Actually I did; during my latest hack of Robotnik's computer files I found something strange."  
  
"Which was?"  
  
"It seems that a large amount of raw material have been reallocated to some unknown project not listed among the usual construction of war materials."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"There's more; also someone has been falsifying records making it seem like all areas of production are operating at normal levels when there's really a small drop instead."  
  
"What's the big deal about that?"  
  
"Well at first it doesn't seem like much but it's been going on for about three years without being noticed, when I tried to trace the source of the tampering I got thousands of different entry points."  
  
"So?"  
  
"So? That's not physically possibly to be in several thousand places at once!"  
  
"Oh, I see."  
  
"Now do you see why I'm the brains and you're not?" she said laughing  
  
"Well miss brains, why don't you run a check on any major activities that have happened three years ago?"  
  
"Hmm..." Rouge said as the sound of a clicking keyboard could be heard  
  
"Find anything?" Shadow said tapping his foot impatiently  
  
"This isn't easy you know, give me a minute." She said  
  
"You done yet?"  
  
"No."  
  
"How about now?"  
  
"Shut up already!"  
  
"I'm still waiting."  
  
"Alright already I'm done."  
  
"And?"  
  
"Here's a list of things: general robot upgrades, power plant construction, mass robotization of prisoners, general computer maintenances, decommissioning of polar R&D station, Metal Sonic reprogramming, recovery of new emerald and strange Lifeforms, Project Phoenix..."  
  
"Stop there, what was that bit about the strange Lifeforms?"  
  
"Let's see, there's a series of log entries made here:  
  
Day 1 Upon discovery of the strange island another master emerald was found along with two bodies preserved inside of separate crystalline structures inside of a shrine, the bodies were taken to the northern research and development facility for further examination.

Day 2 The tests have revealed that they were still alive and that traces of chaos energy resided within them; it is currently unknown what, if anything, they are and how they can be used to further my goals of continual domination of the planet.

Day 3 The large emerald that almost exactly resembles the master emerald on Angle Island, although the only differences are the fact that it is black and gives off a strange energy pulse that interferes with all types of machinery, I've also noticed that it affects organic Lifeforms as well. I've found it hard to focus when I'm around it and have decided to have the machines do the 'hands on' work with the emerald inside of a radiation shielded room.

Day 4 I've managed to determine through carbon dating that the Lifeforms were over several thousand years old. I've decided to try robotizizing them and use them to find and destroy the rebel base known as knothole.

Day 5 My attempts to robotozize the two creatures has ended in failure, it seems that the strange energy within them seemed to protect their bodies from the change, I've decided to go a different route, I shall remove the brain from one of them and input it into the metal sonic robot in an attempt to create a more powerful soldier in my ever growing army.

Day 6 The procedure has yielded less than satisfactory results, the brain put into metal sonic has done nothing, I tried accessing it's memory banks but was unsuccessful, as they seem to have been corrupted beyond recovery.

Day 7 Today I finally figured out what I've been doing wrong, rare the event may be. I've decided to take the remaining body and use my experimental nano- technology on it, thus simulating as much as possible the results I desire.  
  
"All right now, its wrap up time for that, I'm starting to get bored."  
  
"Hold on just a few more minutes, I want to look at that project Phoenix data." Rouge said typing a few more keys  
  
"Well?" Shadow said getting impatient  
  
"Here it is:  
  
Project Phoenix  
  
The surviving lifeform retrieved from the island was surgically engineered to be an unstoppable killing machine. Tests were run on its combat capability but all were failures, the chaos energy previously detected wasn't expressed in any way. The subject was put in a holding cell for further study but managed to escape during a security detail change. Target seemed to be drawn to the black master emerald instinctively but was managed to be recaptured. The target once again escaped but still was unstable; the hybrid technology was being rejected by the body's unique chemistry. The test subject made one last escape during a power failure and get away on a supply transport truck; further investigation of this incident revealed that the break out of the subject was instigated from an outside source. Tracing of the intrusion of the computer system was inconclusive.  
  
"Hmm, fascinating." Shadow said sneaking around through the city of the island avoiding the sight of guards patrolling the grounds  
  
"Glad you think so."  
  
"Well from what it seems, I can guess only one thing."  
  
"Which would be?"  
  
"Someone else is doing more or less the same thing that we are; provoking all sides and parties involved to overthrow all the major powers."  
  
"Guess that means I should be working a bit faster." Shadow said as he made his way to the dark side of the palace walls and began to climb up to the roof  
  
"Well I think that we haven't got much choice but to make sure we are one step ahead of whoever is cutting in on our operation." Rouge said frustrated  
  
"Let's just hope they're not spying on us spying on Robotnik, or we might actually be in trouble." Shadow said laughing  
  
He continued made his way to the edge of the roof and pulled himself over the top, as he walked he noticed a large opening that was the ceiling of a large indoor garden. He looked down through the opening and saw exactly who he was looking for walking about inside.  
  
"Well, well, well, what have we here?" Shadow said quietly to himself as he eavesdropped on the conversation below  
  
"It seems like you have it pretty rough around here, especially now since I got you in a bit of trouble." I said sitting down next to a small pond surrounded by what seemed to be thousands of flowers.  
  
"It's not your fault, it probably would've happened anyway since I'm always going against the council's orders and leaving the island of my own accord so much." She said sitting down next to me leaning her head on my shoulder  
  
"Well it looks like the war is still going to drag on until the more resourceful side wins, sad to say that it is going to be Robotnik."  
  
"If only they'd listen to reason, then we could at least try to help unite the our people together and maybe more would follow our example; most of the citizens on the ground are afraid to fight because of the threat of dying for what they think is a lost cause, the freedom fighters continue their work because dying for a lost cause is better than the alternative." She said sniffing slightly  
  
'Is she crying?' I thought looking down at her, 'maybe I should do something.'  
  
"Well if it makes you feel better I think I have an idea." I said wiping a tear from her cheek  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"You want to do some good to help end this war right? Well consider me your one man army!" I said boldly  
  
"By yourself?! That's impossible." She said shaking her head  
  
"I think I can handle this more or less; besides if I can manage to do some good I won't have to worry about you crying anymore, now will I?"  
  
"I suppose not; but it still doesn't change the fact that I can't leave this island."  
  
"I've already taken care of that little formality, I have a plan."  
  
"I've seen your plans, remember the prison?"  
  
"That was just practice, this time I've really got it."  
  
"And what would that be?"  
  
"I'm going to kidnap you."  
  
She merely stared at me for a few moments and laughed a bit.  
  
"Well I'm glad you can find time to joke in a serious situation." She said standing up  
  
"I'm not joking, I'll take you off the island and bring down the threat of Robotnik single handed." I said holding up a fist  
  
"That's sounds like suicide."  
  
"You said that it's better to fight for a lost cause then none at all right?"  
  
"Something like that; but you could be killed, and I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you just because you wanted to make me feel better." She said turning her back to me  
  
"Well I promise not to get myself killed, and I'll even keep the recklessness to a minimum." I said leaning down and picking a flower from the ocean of color that surrounded us  
  
"Just saying it doesn't mean that something can't go wrong."  
  
"Well how about this then." I said walking around in front of her and placing the flower in her hair  
  
"What's this flower for?"  
  
"It represents my promise to you; no harm will come to either of us and I'll bring and end to Robotnik's evil and free everyone from his slavery, my job will be done when all the petals have fallen off of that flower."  
  
She smiled, and then hugged me.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"Just doing my job."  
  
"Is that all?"  
  
"Maybe more than that." I said  
  
Up on the roof Shadow was disgusted at the sight of such emotion, he got up and walked away from the hole and sat on the edge off the roof.  
  
"That's so pathetic." He said out loud to no one  
  
"What's wrong with that?" Rouge said over the radio  
  
"Flowers and mushy stuff, you know how I feel about things like that."  
  
"It's called being nice, maybe you should try it."  
  
"I don't do nice."  
  
"Well I thought it was sweet."  
  
"Yeah, so sweet it nearly rotted out my teeth and gave me indigestion."  
  
"Why don't you ever give me flowers?"  
  
"'Cause I'm not a wuss."  
  
"Jerk."  
  
"Anyway, it sounds like they're going to make a break for it, so I'll just keep watch here until they do and follow them; meanwhile I want you to check for anything else out of the ordinary and see if you can find that other person that helped this guy escape."  
  
"Sure, as if I didn't have enough to do." She said as the transmission cut off  
  
"I really should just work alone." Shadow said leaning against a raised section of roof  
  
This is going to be a short chapter, shorter than I wanted it to be anyhow. But I needed to write it just to advance plot and answer some questions while at the same time opening up for new ones, not just to confuse but to keep readers reading, even though I'm not getting many different reviewers, or more specifically just the one actually...(sigh) oh well, to the one fan of my writing keep reading and enjoy and expect this story to be pretty long, I expect to have it down as one of the longest sonic fics in the whole site, 100k words at least is what I'm shooting for hopefully.


	13. Not so great escape

> The night lingered on as I tried to plan my way into defeating Robotnik and all the other things I promised; so far, ideas weren't exactly flowing like water. I was still sitting in the indoor garden with Tik'al sitting by my side and it would most likely be daybreak in some number of hours.  
  
'Okay, I'm at a loss for ideas right now.' I thought to myself, 'Maybe if I just had a place to start, someway to deal with an evil mastermind and his massive machine army  
  
I ran through numerous computer files and came across the location of a large supply base, which coincidently was the one that I first had started my little journey from.  
  
'Maybe those Freedom Fighters could lend a hand,' but then I stopped to think about the conversation I heard about while I was walking around that one night, they were also after those emeralds and might not be the most cooperative, but I think I can handle them all the same, at least easier than an entire island of echidnas on the warpath once they find I've got Tik'al.  
  
"So have you come up with something yet?" Tik'al said leaning on my shoulder  
  
"Almost." I said leaning my head on my hand thinking  
  
"Well while you're doing that, can I ask you something?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Remember when we picked up those people in the forest and you stayed back for a while to deal with something?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"What exactly was that something?"  
  
"Nothing important."  
  
"Seemed to me like you were in a fight." She said looking at my injured chest  
  
"Well I've been in quiet a few of those lately."  
  
"True, but none of them left marks like that one." She said poking the laser burn on my chest making me wince a bit from the sting  
  
"It's nothing."  
  
"Looks like a painful nothing."  
  
"Of course not, I feel that little scratch mark."  
  
"So it doesn't hurt when I poke it like this?" she said poking harder  
  
"Only a whole lot." Pushing her hand back  
  
"Well tell me what happened, it's not like it's a secret or something."  
  
"Well there was only one robot this time, and the strange thing is..."  
  
"What?" she asked waiting patiently  
  
"It looked like that blue hedgehog that was with the Freedom Fighters."  
  
"Hmm, I remember hearing about something like that."  
  
"Yeah, well it was a bit tougher than I thought and it knocked me around pretty bad."  
  
"Looks like you won though."  
  
"Not really, it was more or less a draw." I said shaking my head, "I'm lucky that I got out of that alive since it seemed pretty dead set on tearing that emerald from my body."  
  
"Well I'm glad you're okay."  
  
"I'm also confused about something else myself."  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"Well after the fight, I noticed that the thing had one of those chaos emeralds inside it, just like I do."  
  
"That is something to be worried about."  
  
"Well anyhow, I think I've got something as far as a plan goes."  
  
"Let's hear it then."  
  
"Well first we need to get off this island; and the best place I can come up with is Knothole, not that I feel all too comfortable going there."  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"Well remember that night that you couldn't sleep when we were there?"  
  
"Yeah, I do; you left me alone wondering if something might come get me."  
  
"Sorry, but still while I was gone I overheard a conversation between that Sally person and someone else about me and some plan involving the emeralds."  
  
"What else did you hear?"  
  
"Well they said they picked up two signals that were chaos emeralds; one of them was always near you and I figured that was me and another one was moving around somewhere outside."  
  
"What was it?"  
  
"I don't know myself," I said shrugging my shoulders, "I never got a chance to look into it since I got caught eavesdropping and came back to the room."  
  
"Well I'm guessing you might not be that popular, not after making such a scene before we left on the airship."  
  
"They were the ones that started it anyway."  
  
"You were still being rude."  
  
"We still need to go back and start from there as far as a mode of transport, cause I'm not walking everywhere we go and I doubt you want to do the same."  
  
"True, but what about that one thing you said about them trying to take that emerald from you the next time?"  
  
"Well I can deal with that when the time comes."  
  
"So what do we do now?" she said after some silent seconds had passed  
  
"I suggest we leave early and get out of here before someone starts to wonder where you are." I said standing up and helping her to her feet  
  
"I just hope that we are doing the right thing."  
  
"Whether or not it's the right thing to other people isn't that important, it's about making sure you do what you think is the right thing."  
  
"I think that I'm doing the right thing."  
  
"That's good enough for me, let's go."  
  
"Where exactly are we going?"  
  
"To the airship." I said as I walked towards the front of the palace  
  
"You do realize that it's right in front of the palace, where everyone can see, and there's guards there, don't you?" she said following me  
  
"Yeah, well I can deal with a few guards."  
  
We got to the doors leading outside to the front where the airship was; the air was thick from the tropical atmosphere that enveloped the entire island, I pulled open the doors let Tik'al go ahead of me.  
  
"You first, I'll be right behind you."  
  
"Why me first?" she said stopping in the doorway  
  
"Someone has to deal with the guards outside, and I can make sure you get on the ship first so I can 'persuade' them to let us go."  
  
"They'll most likely try to stop you and not listen to reason."  
  
"I'm sure they'll listen to my kind of reason, now just start walking and ignore them if they try to stop you." I said nudging her out the door  
  
Everything seemed to be going well and there wasn't a guard in sight as we walked towards the aircraft, it's metal plating reflecting the mixture of moonlight and torchlight along with faint reflections of the surroundings. We got closer and I was able to see four reflections, Tik'al, two others, and me.  
  
'Time for my half thought plan' I thought as I turned and saw two echidna guards walking towards us  
  
"Princess where are you going?" one of them said  
  
"Just ignore them, I've got it under control." I whispered under my breath  
  
"Just what do you think you're doing? The elders specifically ordered that the princess is to remain here."  
  
"Well I was just kidnapping the princess if you don't mind." I said as if it wasn't a big deal  
  
"What! How dare you!" one of them said as he charged; I quickly sidestepped him, grabbed his arm and threw him forcefully at the other guard knocking them both down. I darted through the airship door and closed it and hurried into the cockpit.  
  
"Do you know how to fly this thing?" Tik'al said sitting in the co-pilot's seat next to me  
  
"Not yet, but I do need to get this thing off the ground before the real pilots or more guards come." I said frantically working the controls to get the engines to fire up  
  
"Well I hate to tell you but it's too late for that." She said pointing outside of the cockpit window at what seemed like a gathering bloodthirsty horde surrounding the ship; a deafening roar of shouting could be heard along with the pounding from someone trying to smash in the door.  
  
"Come on, start damn it!" I said furiously slamming my fist on the console causing it to light up and the start the engines. The ship gave a powerful shudder as it awkwardly began to ascend into the air; the backwash from the turbines pushed back the closest assailants from the ship and cleared several feet of maneuvering space. I began leveling off the ship as it propelled forward somewhat unsteadily, we climbed over low lying building and temples and cleared the city and barreled over the jungle, scrapping branches off of some of the taller trees and scattering wildlife from their nocturnal resting places. Cries of anger could still be heard through the mix of shouting and the mechanical workings of the ship; it was as it the entire island was awakened and aware of my crime. As we left the Angel Island completely the sun began to rise and it's light piercing through the blanket of clouds.  
  
"Looks like it's going to be a good day today." I said as I made a few more adjustments to the ships computer  
  
"You're kidding, right?" Tik'al said laughing, "That was possibly the worst way to start the morning I could possibly think of."  
  
"We didn't get caught, I had the whole situation under control."  
  
"I saw you about to break into a terrified sweat back there earlier, don't tell me that what you call under control."  
  
"Well I didn't get killed you didn't get hauled back to the palace and we've got transportation to our next destination."  
  
"Do you really think that Sally and the others will be willing to help us, or should I say help you."  
  
"I'm sure they will if you ask nicely for me." I said descending the ship slightly, just low enough to skim the surface of the ocean of orange and yellow clouds before us  
  
"Why me?"  
  
"You're both royalty, I'm sure you'll be able to reach a mutual understanding and get some useful information from them; I'd ask myself but after how rude they were to me the day we left."  
  
"I think you have it backwards, you were the one threatening to kill people."  
  
"She called the armed guards on me."  
  
"They just want that emerald, if you could just get it out of you it wouldn't be a problem."  
  
"Well I can't help it if I don't understand what's going on, my own body is a mystery to me."  
  
"It would make things a lot easier for me if you'd apologize for earlier when we get there."  
  
"I told you I'd think about it."  
  
"That was yesterday."  
  
"...I'm still thinking."  
  
"I guess I just won't help you with getting any help from Sally then, I'm sure you'll be able to do just fine with your winning personality."  
  
"Oh no, don't make me have to use that on her." I said laughing, "I'm pretty sure I'd be much more rude then before, I might even have to have a 'violent conversation' with one or two people."  
  
"Maybe we could get Sonic, or one of the other founding members to help out."  
  
I looked down below the ship and saw that we were passing over one of the desolate, old cities that dotted the maps I've seen; it wasn't exactly the one I had seen before but it didn't differ much. It was aglow with a bright intensity from spotlights sweeping back and forth and neon lights; it also covered a great deal of land, choking off what remained of the silent forests.  
  
'For a city it's pretty amazing.' I thought pulling the ship down a bit lower gazing at its grandeur when my internal computer identified it as Casinopolis.  
  
"What a fascinating place." Tik'al said in awe as she looked out the window  
  
"It's the city of Casinopolis."  
  
"I've never been to one of the cities before, but I've heard of this one though."  
  
"You've never been? Not once?" I said somewhat surprised, even though I knew very well that she wouldn't be allowed in a place like that, but she wasn't exactly one to follow the rules  
  
"No." she sighed  
  
"Do you want to go, right now?"  
  
"Aren't we a little too conspicuous to be taking in the sights?"  
  
"Yes; but I want to see this place as well, and it would also give you a chance to out more."  
  
"You really just live for the moment and the heck with the consequences, huh?" she said amused  
  
"You noticed that too?"  
  
"It's rather hard not to."  
  
"Well?"  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"Do you want to go? You might not get another chance to, I'm probably one of the only people you know that'll take you just about anywhere regardless of some musty old rules and traditions, especially since I'm the one watching over you."  
  
"I'd like to think of it as a mutual experience, I'm taking care of you too."  
  
"I see, well I hope you've decided that you wanted to go to the city since I've been descending towards the outskirts of the city for the last few minutes." I said making a wide turn and heading towards a landing pad for Robotnik's regular swat patrols  
  
"What? You do remember we should be trying to put an end to Robotnik's evil right?"  
  
"So you want to forget it then, you want to go back to our original course?"  
  
"Well..." she trailed off at the thought of having the chance to see  
  
"I'll assume that's a yes." I said leveling off the ship above one of the pads  
  
The ship pulled in close and shuddered from the less than graceful landing, the engines shut off down as I powered down all of the systems.  
  
"Let's get out and take a look around, shall we?" I said getting out of the seat and heading for the door and stepping outside with Tik'al following.  
  
The area was occupied by about a dozen or so other airships similar in design, but luckily there were no guards about. I walked out towards the city streets, nearly blinded by the lights and deafened by the sounds of music and heavy traffic.  
  
"Such a busy place." Tik'al said; only to have her voice drowned out by the sound  
  
"Yeah, it should allow us to blend in pretty well without being noticed." I said walking out into the crowd with Tik'al holding onto my arm  
  
"Don't walk off without me, I might get lost."  
  
"I won't let anything happen to you, just relax."  
  
"Easy for you to say, you don't have to worry about anybody pushing you around."  
  
"Well anyway where do you want to go first?" I said as we pushed through the swarming crowds of people  
  
"How about that building over there? The music coming from it sounds...interesting, to say the least." She said pointing with her other hand at a large building with blinding neon lights and thin wisps of smoke wafting out of the doors  
  
"Alright, but I should warn you that some places may not be, well, to you liking in a manner of speaking." I continued walking inwardly laughing to myself, mostly because I knew very well what that building was, but I just didn't want to say anything since it would be worth it to see her expression  
  
"What's that mean?" she asked curiously  
  
"I'm sure we'll find that out after it happens." I said, accidentally letting out a small chuckle under my breath


	14. First Blood

Under cover of darkness, a trio of figures concealed in shadow approach a shrine on the center of Angel Island. The air was filled with a dead silence as they approached a large green emerald surrounded by a rippling pool of blue water. Three echidnas walked into the light from the many torches that surrounded the massive gem, they were the council elders that ruled the island.

"Are you sure that this is necessary?" Kyiel said stepping into the light his muscular stature being silhouetted against the light

"Positive, we must call upon its power to stop him." Rhiel said stepping up as well into the light

"How can you be sure he is one of the Ancients that once dwelt upon the island all those ages ago?" Kyiel's voice hinted a tiny bit of concern as he saw the gem begin to pulse steadily at their presence

"He's right, none of us has ever seen one of them before." Opya said as she came up behind Kyiel nearly startling him

"True, but the old texts describe them clearly enough to figure out what they looked like." Rhiel said circling the emerald gazing into its polished surface at his reflection

"Then let's summon the guardian at get this over with." Opya said taking a stand across the emerald from Rhiel with Kyiel following suit

"Ancient guardian we command you! come forth!" They all chanted in sync, their voices echoing into the night. The master emerald began pulsing rapidly, and released a quick earsplitting shriek as the water surrounding it bubbled fiercely as if boiling, and then it spilled over and flowed to the bottom of the steps and began to take form.

The figure shaped itself into a somewhat bipedal form, that although its body seemed slightly shapeless, it was quite functional. It was a blue skinned creature with bright, glowing, jade colored eyes, it turned and faced it's would be masters and glared at them coldly with its faceless features.

"You are needed to perform a task that hasn't been necessary for hundreds of upon hundreds of years." Rhiel said walking towards the steps, stopping safely at the top of them only about a dozen or so from the strange being. The creature simply turned its back on him and gazed absentmindedly at the surrounding shrine.

"I see you've noticed that your emeralds are missing." Opya said walking forward a bit, as they all watched the blue form pacing slowly around the shrine, "Well we're also missing something, for you see, the princess is gone as well." She said

The creature stopped, and turned to look over its shoulder at her, listening more intently.

"I thought you'd like to know that she's been kidnapped by possibly the last remaining of the demons that you had fought against in the ancient wars; after all, you were pretty close friends...Chaos."

The last comment seemed to have made him angry, especially since his closest friend had been kidnapped by one of his most hated enemies.

"So are you going to go after them? I'm sure that the emeralds will turn up in your quest since he was the one that forced the princess to take the emeralds from the sacred shrine without anyone noticing."

Chaos stood still for a moment and then turned quickly and headed off to bring back the princess and the chaos emeralds, all that could be seen was a small flood of water heading of noisily through the forest, crashing through the underbrush and knocking over some of the more flimsy trees.

"Rhiel do you think it is wise to have told him such lies just to infuriate him?" Opya asked only to get a small chuckle in return.

"Of course it was," he walked down the rest of the steps, "His blind wrath will ensure that we get efficient results; Phoenix will be killed, the emeralds will be returned, and the princess..."

"What about her?" Kyiel asked confused about the sudden silence

"The princess needs to be replaced by someone more responsible and more in control." Opya said walking up behind Rhiel and placing her arms around him, "I think I would be better suited for the position don't you?" she whispered in his ear, "Or better yet, queen." She said seductively

"The princess will be dealt with 'properly' when she is returned, and Angel Island will have its queen for the coming take over once Robotnik is killed when out plan is executed."

"Rhiel, if we were going to do something about Robotnik why didn't we just listen to the princess in the first place?" Kyiel asked as he watched the two flirting, "She seems to have had some idea about what's going on down on the ground." He continued

"Because...we're in charge not her, I hope you realize that and will be taking part in the plan."

"...I see; I will be present for your little plan." Kyiel said walking off towards the palace, "I hope you two are happy with yourselves." He whispered as he left

"I don't think he can be trusted." Opya said

"If the need should arise we shall deal with him as well." Rhiel said sinisterly

Back in Casinopolis outside of a rather sleazy looking bar, Shadow trails his two targets at every step they take. He had been slipping through the dense crowds, much to his displeasure, to keep from being noticed; but had nearly lost track of Phoenix and Tik'al when they walked into a bar.

"I'd better contact Rouge and let her know she's got company." He said turning a corner and walking into a dark ally and turning on his small handheld radio "Rouge are you there?"

"Yeah, what's going on?" she said over the other end

"I hate to tell you this, but they just went into a bar."

"What's so bad about that? Just follow them."

"Well I would, but I thought I'd give you a chance to do it yourself."

"You know I can't do that, I'm undercover right now working in a bar myself."

"Well that's what I meant."

"I think you lost me right there."

"Well let's just say that you've got some new customers."

"They're in here?"

"Yup, and they're you're problem now."

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Taking a break, see you later." Shadow said as he clicked off the radio and walked off, "Think I'll get a drink." He said laughing

Back inside of the bar, Phoenix and Tik'al were exploring city life. The smells of smoke and alcohol permeated the air, and the thick haze of white made it hard to see.

"What is this place?" Tik'al asked as she gazed around the room at all the unfamiliar scenes and disturbing acts

"Well it reminds me of a bar I was in earlier, before I met you." I said as she continued clinging to my arm

"I can't believe you've been to a place like this before, why didn't you tell me what this place was?"

"Well you picked it out." I glanced around the room looking at all the 'exotic' dancers and such, while I was looking I eyed the sign and saw the name of the place, 'hmm, Devil's Den, that's an interesting name for a club I suppose.'

"You know I've never been out like this before, anyway stop staring so hard at everyone."

"Huh? Stop doing what?" I said playing dumb

"You heard me."

"Can we sit down while you're yelling at me about this?" I said walking towards an empty table

"I'm not yelling." She said raising her voice slightly

"I'm sitting down, you can finish talking to me over here." I said sitting down at a booth in a darker corner of the club to avoid the blinding strobe lights

"Why don't we leave and go someplace a little more.... pleasant?"

"I would but this is most likely a place where we could find some important information."

"Like what?"

"Just relax, I'm looking around to see if I see anyone who might know something."

"If by that you mean staring at women, then that's what it looks like you're doing."

"Now that's not fair, you just assume because I'm looking around it means that I'm looking at them."

"Aren't you?"

"Well...hey wait a minute, why do you even care anyway? Are you jealous or something because I'm not looking at you that way?"

"...I think you've missed the point."

"No I think I'm pretty close to it, you're just jealous." I said as I looked toward the bar and saw a white bat woman working the counter

"I'm not jealous, I just think you should be paying attention to something other than women." Tik'al said crossing her arms angrily

'Hmm, I wonder who that is? She doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the people in this club, it's like an ocean in the desert, it doesn't make sense.' I thought as I began running through all the files in my head, only to come up empty

"Anyway who could you possibly know here that has any useful information?" Tik'al asked

"Well I'm not sure," I said trying to scan the room for anything strange when I detected a strange signal being transmitted from the counter, or more specifically that women that was there, "I'm sure something will turn up though, just be ready to leave, in a real hurry if need be."

"What for?"

"I can't exactly say yet, but just to be on the safe side you should be ready for anything." I said noticing that she was looking right towards the table

"I'm not a soldier or something, I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be expecting like you are."

"A soldier? Hmm." I thought about what she said for a moment and had another strange vision; it was of a battlefield with soldiers covering it and the sound of combat could be heard echoing through the air. I saw a blinding flash of light and saw myself, I was fighting with what looked like the warriors from Angel Island; in fact it was on an island. I saw the edge of the island where the water meets the land and noticed we weren't in Angel Island, but some other strange place. The perspective changed again and I was standing among the warriors on the ground, surrounded by the dead and dying. I looked towards the distance and saw the temple from some of the other visions I've had, and then I saw an explosion of black light flow from the temple, streams of black energy tore through the waves of soldiers, piercing their bodies and burning them alive. After seeing that I had the urge to run towards the temple, I wasn't sure why, but I just ran, and saw another flash of light and then the vision faded.

"Phoenix!"

"Who's that?" I said hazily, rubbing my eyes to clear my vision

"What do you mean, who's that?" I heard a familiar voice say

"Tik'al?"

"Who else?"

"What happened to me?"

"I don't know, but someone is coming this way, you need to wake up already." She said as I focused on a form walking towards the table, "and besides, you're not very intimidating in your sleep."

My eyes adjusted and I saw the woman from the bar taking a seat in a chair across the table from us. She placed three glasses on the table, possibly something alcoholic, and picked up one of the glasses for herself and took a sip from it.

"So what brings you two here?" she said with a rather saucy voice

"I could ask you the same question, seeing as how you picked this table out of all others to come to." I said gesturing towards the rest of the building.

"Well neither of you look like you're from around here, so I thought you two might like a drink."

"I don't exactly care for the stuff," I said remember that fact that I can't really taste anything anyway, "but thanks all the same."

"What about your little girlfriend there, hmm?"

"I think you're confused, she's just my friend." I said stressing the last word

"Well if you're not going to drink yours I'll just drink mine then." Tik'al said picking up one of the tall, slender crystal glasses and cautiously taking a small sip from it.

"Don't drink that!" I said surprised at how careless she was being, "it could have poison in it or something."

"Well it doesn't, so don't worry." The strange woman said leaning forward on her hand and looking me over

"What's your name anyway?" I asked watching her carefully

"Rogue, what about the two of you?"

"That's not really that important is it?" I said thinking that we should try and keep a low profile

"You're rather secretive, must be because you're criminals or something dangerous like that? Maybe you're with the freedom fighters or something like that?" she said smiling

"Of course not." I said confidently

"Well then why not tell me what your name is, hmm?"

"It's none of anyone's business."

"How about I take a guess then?" she finished off the rest of her drink and leaned forward a bit, "Maybe your name starts with the letter...p?"

"Stop doing that."

"Ah, so I'm getting somewhere." She said giggling a bit

"Just luck."

"Hmm, what about the next letters; h...o...e..."

"What do you want?"

"n...i...x..."

I remained silent for a moment wondering on how she would even know something like that.

"You work for Robotnik don't you?" Tik'al said speaking up

"Your little friend's a smart girl."

"Yeah, she is." I said looking around the room to see if anyone else was watching us, "but that's besides the point, do you work for Robotnik?"

"What if I did?"

"Well if you know my name then you must know who she is then."

"Princess Tik'al." she said quietly, just enough for us to hear

"Then you know that I'm very dangerous."

"Oh really?"

"I might have to ensure that our presence isn't made know as much as possible." I said holding up my left hand near her face and unsheathing my claws, "If you know what I mean."

"Attacking me would only make you that much more obvious, not exactly a smart idea."

"I'm not one for bright ideas, I'm more about rash actions and such." I said putting my hand down

"Apparently you're just the muscle and she's the brains, am I right?"

"Looks like she got us figured." Tik'al said laughing a bit

"You're not getting drunk, are you?"

"I'm not even sure." She said laughing a bit more

"I guess that's a yes." Rogue said

"Poor girl, can't exactly hold her liquor now can she?"

"I think you should stop drinking that." I said reaching for the glass she was holding

"I'm fine." She said pulling the glass out of my grasp, "and I'm not drunk, just a little dizzy."

"Whatever."

"You're very protective of her, aren't you?" Rogue said

"Of course."

"That's real chivalrous of you."

"I still don't know exactly who you are."

"Well if you must know," She said reaching out and pulling my face closer to hers, "I'm a spy; but not for Robotnik, I'm actually spying on him and I've got some connections within his 'inner circle' in a matter of speaking."

"Is that so?"

"I've heard quite a bit about you, maybe you could use some help."

"Why should we trust you?"

"Phoenix." Tik'al said leaning over and wrapping her arms around me, "you shouldn't be so suspicious of everyone, besides we need all the help we can get."

I heard Rogue laughing a bit and turned to see why.

"What's so funny?"

"That looks like a bit more than just friends to me, don't you think?"

"Anyway," I said becoming slightly embarrassed from the comment, "I'll need some sort of proof that you're even trustworthy."

"Hmm, well that is a problem isn't it?" she leaned back for a moment and seemed to be thinking, "Well how about you take this key and head over to the nearest hotel and I'll meet you there later to discuss some things." She said taking out a small, silver key with a tag on it and sliding it across the table toward me

"How do I know that's not a trap?" I said leaning back, "What if a bunch of those mechanical soldiers is here waiting for me and you're just trying to lead them to me; after all I did see a few other airships here."

"Why would I do that? I could just have had this place surrounded while talking to you...that is if I were working to do such a thing,"

"She has a point you know." Tik'al said, still under the affects of whatever it was she had drank

"You're not in your right mind at the moment, so..."

"Is that supposed to mean my opinion doesn't matter or something?" Tik'al interrupted

"Only when you're drunk; besides, this is a complex situation." I said, feeling like we were being watched again like in the forest

"Well if you're done arguing, I'll be going back undercover now," Rouge said getting up from the table, "But when you get the chance, make sure you stop by the address on that key." She said as she walked off into the crowd and back to the bar

"So what are we going to do now?" Tik'al said nudging me in the side with her elbow

"Why ask me? You're the one that said I shouldn't be so suspicious of people."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well I'm sure that you wanted to go and see what she wanted to talk to us before we do anything else." Holding up the key

"Of course I do, but that doesn't mean I don't think you should be on your guard like you always are."

"But you just said earlier about me being so suspicious of people, that's really how I stay alert you know."

"Well don't make it so obvious then." Standing up, wobbling a bit from the drink

"Whatever, let's go before you pass out on the ground and I have to carry you around town." I said standing up and taking her hand as I headed for the door

"I'm not a child, you don't have to walk me around like this." Tik'al said pulling her hand away from mine

"Yeah, why not let the little lady alone?" said a rather gruff voice from behind me

"Right, we'll be takin' real good care of her for ya'." Another voice said

I turned and saw two mobians had snuck up behind me in the bad lighting and loud music, my eyes adjusted a bit to reveal that they were both wolves. The larger one of them walked past me and began circling Tik'al, eyeing her while the other gave me a shove towards the exit.

"Why don't you forget about that guy and come with the two of us, huh sweetie?"

"I'd rather not." Tik'al said trying to walk away from him only to be pulled back roughly

"I don't think so," he pulled her closer to him, "I think you'll be coming with us and showing me and my friend here a good time." He said reaching out his other hand and brushing it against her chest

"Phoenix, help me!" Tik'al said

"Let go of her." I said stepping towards the wolf that was grabbing Tik'al only to be blocked by the other one

"Where do you think you're going?" he said showing his teeth and popping his knuckles

"Right through you if you don't stand aside." Bracing myself for an attack of some sort

"I'd like to see you try it!" he said growling loudly enough to get the attention of the majority of the other customers dancing and mingling around us

"I intend to." I said clenching my fists as a large crowd of spectators began to surround us, egging my opponent on with random taunts and whistles

"Let's go then!" he said taking a swing at me, only to have his jaw meet with the end of my fist as I moved to the side. He was knocked back a few steps and left a bit staggered with a thin trail of blood trickling from his mouth

"Care for another? Or have I made my point?" I said unsheathing my claws

"Don't tell me you need help taking down this weakling?" the larger wolf said, as he managed to pull himself away from Tik'al

"I don't need your help! He jus' caught me off guard." He said looking over his shoulder

"Sounds like a good idea." I said lifting him up before he turned around and throwing him into the crowd, knocking over several of them and breaking a table, "Looks like your friend isn't going to be needing you help after all." I said grinning a bit, somewhat enjoying the fight for some reason

"You're going to be needing help after I get through with you!" he said charging me snarling

"Damn." I tried to move but his shoulder drove into my ribs and sent the both of us to the ground, much to the amusement of the growing crowd

"Now I got you!" the wolf said reaching out trying to choke me

"Get off me!" I said grabbing his wrists and kicking him off of me, and then I rolled over and slashed him across the throat and chest with my claws, cutting deep trenches in his flesh leaving bloody trails

The crowd backed away very quickly after such a sight; I stood up and glanced over at the other wolf that I threw earlier and saw that he was headed right for me in a blind rage, just as the other one had.

'Too easy.' I thought as I kicked out my foot and made him loose his footing and stumble forward enough for me to rake both sets of claws across his back, the sound of flesh being torn and muscle tearing could be heard as the razor-sharp points dragged down spraying blood onto the floor 'Maybe I should just kill the both of them...' I looked at the both of them, they were both sprawled out onto the floor with their blood pooling around their bodies, "T-They're already dead..." I whispered under my breath as I backed away from the corpses, feeling slightly disgusted with myself.

"Phoenix." I turned hearing Tik'al say my name; her face was a mixture of fear, sorrow, and confusion. I turned and walked toward the door, the crowd quickly and quietly parting as I left back into the deafening sound of the city

As I walked down the sidewalk I had become aware of the fact that I left Tik'al, or so I had thought as I looked over my shoulder and saw her walking up behind me.

"Phoenix." She said gently

"...Yeah." I wanted to just ignore her, mostly because I already knew what she was going to ask me

"Why did..."

"Don't." I cut her off

"But..."

"Just don't, alright." I said walking a bit faster

"You don't even know what I was going to say." She said matching my pace

"I have a pretty good idea." I said looking at an upcoming sign, the burning neon light making me squint

"Do you have an answer to go with it?"

I walked for a few more steps and stopped to lean against the wall of the building the sign was attached to, "No," I sighed deeply, "But you know what?" I said clenching my fists; the blood on my hands was already beginning to dry in the slightly brisk air

"What?"

"Doing that felt...right for some reason; I'm not sure if I was trying to protect you or if I was just doing that just because back there."

"You seem to act more on instinct than anything."

"True." I leaned my head back and looked at the sky, from here I couldn't even see it's true color, all I could see was a blackish red-orange from the combination of smoke and city lights, "Something about it though, it just seemed like the right thing to do."

"Everyone has their faults." She said joining me in looking up at the sky, "Yours are just a little bit...well; I really don't know what to say to something like that really."

"I don't either."

"You know, with you thinking about things out loud like this, having a enlightened moment of thought and all, it makes me feel uncomfortable."

"Why's that?"

"I liked it better when you made silly jokes and comments, they put me at ease and really give me a sense of security, like everything's going to be all right as long as you're not being to serious about it."

"Hmm, sense of security, huh?" I smiled and looked back down on her, "You're just saying that because you've sobered up a bit, aren't you?" I said continuing down the sidewalk with Tik'al following right beside me

So how's that for a new chapter? Not sure how good it is if at all, besides the things I feel are wrong with it...oh well read and review.


	15. Razor's Edge

In the desolate and lifeless city of Robotropolis, a large, dark shadow looms through the clouds and pierces the night sky as Robotnik's massive air carrier dips down below the clouds, the powerful engines pushing them back. Below, in a recently remodeled factory, an army of Combots off all types were on guard in the area, more so than any other area of the city. Lately patrols around the city had been increased and expanded to keep out intruders; even all of the latest rebel attacks had been turned back with more ferocity than usual. At the factory's center a tall spire stretched to the sky, as if the scrape the heavens themselves, although the belief in such waned greatly under Robotnik's oppressive rule. It had been a recently completed construction project to allow the delivery off large groups of robotozized Mobians directly to the tower to serve as workers and security on the inside.

"Apparently someone has been stealing from my vast resources again." Robotnik said as he turned his chair towards another monitor, "and it's just as before; thousands of signals to trace and none of them seem to lead anywhere." He said folding his hands together and leaning back, his chair groaning in protest under the strain of his weight.

"Perhaps it is time to move up my planning schedule." He said tapping a small panel on the left arm rest of his chair revealing a series of small buttons, on which he keyed on for several seconds.

"Computer." Robotnik said, his voice echoing off the high ceiling of his command room

"_Yes Doctor Robotnik."_ Droned a monotone voice from the walls

"Have there been any reports on the current status of the life form?"

"_No." _the voice said after a few beeps signaling information being processed

"Initiate a satellite sweep for any chaos energy signatures in or surrounding all cities and populated areas and initiate the docking procedure for the aerial platform."

"_Affirmative."_ It said with another series of confirming beeps as the ship shifted and began to edge its way over towards the central tower.

The doctor rose from his chair and began to walk out of the room towards the door, his heavy boots steadily clicked against the polished silver colored floor as he stepped. The doors slid open with a pneumonic hiss at his approach and closed just the same after his passing. He continued down a hall lined with armor plated windows, and turned his head towards them and gazed out at the surrounding land as he walked.

"Here it will begin." He said stopping to admire the small bit of his vast empire that lay before him, "The site where my perfect utopia shall unfold and my power shall finally be absolute." He said as he continued down the hall and entered the elevator.

"Main docking bay." He said as the computer beeped and the slick metal doors slid shut and the elevator ascended the shaft making a low humming sound as it went. The elevator reached its destination and the door slid open and Robotnik stepped out into a large window lined hallway. Silently, he continued on, occasionally casting his gaze towards the windows and examining the many vehicles and aircraft docked inside the dock itself until he came to the end of the hall and stopped at a large sturdy hatch. Outside the ship had maneuvered its way over to a similar hatch on the top level of the tower and a bridge extended from the tower entrance to the ship's docking hatch, the sound of the heavy locks slamming into place echoed throughout the ship and reverberated throughout the ship. Robotnik waited as the door's pneumatic locking system hissed and the door slid open. The high winds the surrounded the ship rushed inward through the door and roared down the hallway past Robotnik. He grinned widely as he stepped forward and crossed the bridge into the tower, the florescent lighting reflecting off the polished, silver colored metal interior. Robotnik entered yet another elevator, this one made of glass allowing easy viewing of the entire facility from the centrally located shaft. As it descended, he could see his latest invention being put together; a massive satellite being constructed and linked together with the robotocizer, capable of blanketing the entire planet of Mobius with its' horrifying power.

"Soon the entire planet will bow at my feet." He said as he reached the ground level

Back in the city of Casinopolis...

"I can't believe all of what's going on." Tik'al said walking side by side with me as I continued towards the location indicated by the address on the key I received from that woman.

"Yeah, it's been quite a last couple of hours." I said still feeling somewhat remorseful of viciously mauling those two back at that club received by my hands; I could still smell the scent of their blood on me, it was overwhelming and it made me sick.

"Are you listening to me?" Tik'al said pulling my sleeve

"I'm trying to, but I can't really focus right now."

"You're still thinking about what happened, aren't you?"

"What made you think that?" She I said pocketing the key

"Well we've been walking around in circles for a while now; apparently your attention is somewhere else."

"Yeah, well I just killed a couple of guys for no real reason at all." I said, eliciting a few strange looks from passers by, who seemed to clear a path around us as we walked

"You should've at least tried to clean that blood off of you, it hasn't completely dried yet you know." She whispered under her breath

I looked down at the ground and saw that there was a trail of blood still dripping off of my clothes and body, none of it mine.

"Well I see you're point, but I wasn't exactly thinking about cleanliness when I was dealing with the moral consequences of what I had done."

"I guess you can get cleaned off later at that hotel place that Rouge told us to go to." She said reaching into my pocket and taking the key from it

"Do you even have any idea where we're going? I mean how do we find someplace that we've never been?"

"Well actually I have been paying some attention to where we were going."

"But you've never been here, have you?"

"No, but if you look at the tag on that key it says 'Twin Moons Hotel'."

"Yeah, it does," she said turning it over and examining the little picture of a red and yellow moon side by side, "but how does that tell us where we are?"

"Well around the last circle around we did I noticed that there was a hotel across the street over there." I said pointing towards a building that was lit up like the sun by several spotlights at ground level

"And you were going to say something when?"

"I did, just now."

"You're hopeless, you know that?"

"Anyway, let's go before it starts to rain or something." I said looking up at the sky, where the clouds were starting to build and darken.

"I wonder what else she had to tell us anyway." Tik'al said walking ahead of me across the street as I quickened my pace to follow

"I wouldn't know, I can't read minds," I wondered for a minute, "well at least I don't think I can." I said to myself as we crossed through the blinding spotlights pivoting back and forth from one end of the building to the other

"This place is amazing!" Tik'al exclaimed as she wandered through the front door and into the main lobby

"Don't make it so obvious that we don't belong here, I don't think we need to attract so much attention." I said pulling her off with me towards the front desk where the registration desk worker was reading a newspaper

"I'm looking for a woman named Rouge." I said to the clerk at the counter

"There's no one registered here by that name." he said never looking up from the newspaper

"Maybe you should try taking your eyes off that paper and actually check."

"And maybe you didn't hear me when I said there's no one here by that name."

"What about this?" Tik'al said holding up the key she was carrying and showing it to the desk clerk who examined it closely

"Hmm, use the key on the middle elevator and take it to the bottom floor." He whispered quietly

I was a bit confused but quickly dismissed it as we walked over towards the elevator and I pushed the call button and the doors slid open and we stepped inside.

"This seems kind of secretive." She said as I inserted the key and turned it with a soft click causing the elevator to hum to life

"How do you figure that?" I said somewhat sarcastically

"Well that man wouldn't tell us anything until I showed him that key."

"Yeah, Rouge most likely doesn't want anyone finding her."

"That and the fact that the wall behind him had several identical keys on it, but none of them looked like that one." she said pointing to the key in the lock.

"You're a regular detective." I said as the elevator began its' rapid descent below the hotel

"We're moving rather fast." Tik'al said clinging to my arm

"Not that fast." I said lying, even though it did feel like we were falling instead of just being lowered to the ground or something

"I think we're finally slowing down." She said letting go of my arm as the elevator came to a stop

"Let's see what awaits us in the basement of this strange place." I said as the doors slowly opened and a vibrant light spilled inward bathing the interior of the elevator car with a soft, pink light. I walked forward, amazed at the decorations that lined the large foyer just outside the elevator. Several small ponds were arranged the in the room with small exotic fish swimming inside of them.

"I've never seen anyplace so beautifully designed."

"What about that palace you live in on Angel Island?"

"It's not like this, though."

"Maybe you should think about redecorating when you get back."

"I suppose." She said as we continued down a polished marble path into the next room where the ceiling was covered with ornate, gold trimmed lamps, giving off more of the pink light that was already. The walls and floor surrounding the path were covered with tall leafy tropical plants that seemed to cover everything, and the sound of a miniature waterfall was flowing on a far wall next to some silver lined stairs.

"I think all this stupid light is going to make me go blind." I said shielding my eyes as they tried to adjust to the odd colored light.

"That's a rather rude thing to say," said a voice from the stairs, "especially after I let you into my home like this."

I looked towards the stairs and saw Rouge leaning over the railing looking down at us from the balcony several meters above the ground

"Don't mind him; your home is very exquisite, thank you for inviting us." Tik'al said with a slight bow

"Yeah, sure, make me seem like I don't have any manners or something." I said putting my hand down, but I still squinted a bit from the brightness

"Well come on up and stay a while, I've got a bit of a story to tell you." She said as she slipped back into a room

"Might as well, I do have some questions that need answering." I said as we followed her up the stairs into another fancy looking room with a high ceiling and a large crystal chandelier at the center, surrounded by several smaller ones. I looked around and saw several semi-circle couches arranged around a round in the center of the room and a large, flat monitor on the wall. I looked to the side of the room and saw some tall lamps that had crystal spheres sitting at the top of them; I reached for one but was reprimanded by Rouge before I had the chance to touch it.

"Try not to touch any of my valuable things with your blood covered hands, if you don't mind."

"I told you that you should've cleaned that blood off."

"Alright already, I get the point."

"So what would you like to know first?" Rouge said coming out of a nearby kitchen holding a few glasses and a large bottle

"How about telling me if you have someplace I can wash all this blood off of me?" I said looking at some landscape paintings on the wall, "unless you don't mind the grime." I said laughing a bit

"Through that door and down the hall to your left." She said pointing with a glass in her hand

"Thanks," I said walking towards the door, "try not to get too drunk this time Tik'al." I said opening the door

"You just worry about the taking a bath." She said as they both laughed

"Yes your majesty." I said sarcastically as I walked around the corner and down the hall to a large double door at the end. I slid the door open and stepped into what seemed like a tropical forest. Thick clouds of steam wafted around me as I pushed through the foliage.

"This entire hideout must have cost a large fortune to make, especially being so huge." I said coming to a vast pool in what I believed to be the center of the miniature forest.

"Impressive." I said walking over to the edge of the water and kneeling down to touch the water, "Nice and warm, I guess a bath would help me relax after tonight." I said taking off my clothes and laying them in a neat pile on the ground and dipped into the water.

'That feels great.' I thought sliding down in the water with chin just above the water. I listened to the silence the filled the room, at least until I heard the sound of something moving through the plants.

'What was that?' I thought trying to look around to see where the sound was coming from, but finding that difficult with all the steam coupled with the pink lights throughout the room. Again the sound of something moving around, but it was closer this time.

'That sounds like...' I turned to look over my shoulder and saw Tik'al standing there behind me

"Having fun?" she asked kneeling down next to the edge of the pool

"Do you mind?" I said backing away from her

"No, why?" walking around the edge

"I think you've been drinking with Rouge, haven't you?"

"Maybe," she giggled, "I just thought you could use some company."

"You've got a problem." I said turning my back to her, "I'm just fine by myself."

"So you say." She said taking a few steps around the pool out of my field of vision, probably back out the door

'That girl has no self control.' I thought swishing my tail lazily back and forth behind me only to brush up against something under the water

"Hey." Tik'al said from behind me placing her arms around my neck

"What are you doing!?" I said, practically frozen in place from embarrassment

"Just playing, why?" she said leaning forward against my back

"Because it's...uh...well..." I said trying to move, but finding it difficult to will myself to do so

"Yes?" she said running her hands down my back

"Aaah, don't do that!" I said flinching

"Ticklish, aren't we?" she said doing it again

"Of course not, I just...I...just..." my voice trailed off as I flinched again out of reflex

"Feels nice, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose." I said trying to get composed again

"By the way, what are these marks on your back?" she said tracing a line along my spine

"What marks?"

"There are a lot of strange marks; they look like old scars or something."

"Could be, don't worry about it though, whatever they are it doesn't hurt."

"Well then you wouldn't mind me playing around a bit more then, would you?" she said moving around in front of me

"I guess there's no harm in it." I said as she put her arms around me and hugged me again

"You know you're too tense right now, you should relax."

"How's this?" I said putting my hands on her hips and kissing her gently on the lips

"That's a bit too bold, at least with the hands anyway." She said pushing my hands back and making me laugh

"So then you want me to stop?"

"No, do you want me to stop then?" she said moving back

"No," I said pulling her back, "I never said I didn't like what you were doing, I'm just uncomfortable with it for some reason."

"Why's that?'

"Well you are drunk after all."

"You think that the only reason I'm out here is that?"

"I don't know; it just feels like I'm taking advantage of you in your current state is all, you are a bit of a lightweight when it comes to drinking."

"Maybe I came in here because I actually like you, did you ever think of that?"

"No, I didn't." I said sitting up a bit, "I never think things out like that, I assumed you'd know that after watching my 'plans' in action."

"You always said you knew what you were doing." She said resting her head on my chest, "don't tell me that you were lying about that."

"No, things just didn't exactly go as planned." I said closing my eyes. I smelled the air and it my nose was filled with the scent of flowers; I opened my eyes and saw the small flower I had put in her hair still sitting where I left it

"Well I think we're clean enough." Tik'al said letting go of me and stepping up out of the pool and over to where she had her clothes sitting on the ground and picked up a towel and began to dry off. I looked at her and examined her body; she was covered with water from the pool and it beaded on her skin like the dew that's left over after it rains. She turned and looked at me, possibly feeling my gaze and then turned back.

"You know what?" I said turning around pretending not to stare

"Hmm?"

"You're really beautiful, you know that?"

She finished drying herself off and threw the towel at me and it landed on my head, the tip of one of the corners just barely dipping into the water.

"Hurry up and get dried off, it's getting late." She said as she put her clothes back on and walked out giggling

"It's going to be one of those days I think." I said getting out of the water and drying off, "I wonder if Rouge knows anything about my past, or anything useful." I said putting my clothes back on and shaking loose the last few drops of water from my hair.

I walked back out of the room and began to make my way down the hall when I felt a strange presence, just like back at knothole and on several other occasions.

"It can't be that machine, could it?" I began to cautiously sneak towards the door and put my ear to it to listen to the sounds on the other side.

"_So what do you think?"_

'That voice is Rouge'

"_I'm sure he won't have any problem with it, especially since he was going to help me do it anyway."_

'That's Tik'al.'

"_You mean just the two of you? That's funny; you don't look like the fighter type."_

'That voice doesn't sound familiar at all.' I thought not recognizing the deeper male voice

"_Well I could learn."_

"_I doubt that, you've lived to sheltered a life."_

"_So what's that got to do with being able to learn something?"_

"_She couldn't bring herself to kill something, even in self defense; I can tell just by looking at her."_

"_Well I can teach her myself."_

"_Good luck with that."_

"_Well anyway we're shorthanded and those freedom fighters try as they might, can't do what needs to be done with a rag tag bunch of misfits."_

"_Where is this guy anyway? I've wanted to meet him face to face for a while now."_

'I'd better step into the little meeting.' I thought pushing open the door and stepping into the room

"It looks like he's finally out and about." Rouge said still holding a wine glass

"Yeah." I said scanning the room for the source of that other voice and that strange feeling I keep getting. I looked over towards the semi circular couches and noticed the back of someone's head leaning back.

"Let me introduce you to my other guest that just arrived." Rouge said as the figure stood up from the couch and turned to face me, "This is Shadow."

"Is that so?"

"This now that I've seen you up close I'm not impressed." He said walking from behind the couch, "but I guess beggars can't be choosers."

I looked at him for a minute and scanned him for a moment, an entry was brought up about the supposed, 'ultimate life form'.

"So you're the one."

"What?" he said curiously

"You've been following us for quiet a while; I've been wondering who or what was giving off that strange energy, and it's been you this whole time." I said walking over to one of the couches and taking a seat next to Tik'al

"Well I guess you're not totally useless if you sensed my presence all this time." He said taking his seat again

"Anyway," Rouge started, "Shadow is basically our man on the inside, he works closely with Robotnik and gives me information on most of his plans and helps keep my undercover position in the city."

"Interesting, but what I was wondering about was the conversation that you three were having before I came in." I said relaxing a bit, trying not to seem to tense, "it seemed like someone wanted to ask me something." I said and looked over to Tik'al

"Well they wanted to..."

"Those two did, I didn't want to." Shadow said cutting her off

"Yes, well _Rouge_ wanted to ask you to join their group to take down Robotnik on the inside instead of working on the outside like the Freedom Fighters do."

"That sounds like It's a good idea." I said leaning back a bit, "but I think we should visit the trust issue first."

"What do you mean by that?" Rouge said taking a sip from her glass

"Well if he's working with you, and he's been spying on me, then what's supposed to make me believe your offer is genuine?"

"Well I still have that information that you might be interested in." she said reaching for a thin device from off of the arm of the couch and opening it to reveal a laptop computer, "The information about who you are; if you're still interested that is."

"I do believe I am."

"Well let's take a look a the monitor." She said typing as the large screen on the wall displayed what was on her computer. "First let's start with where you came from." She said as the screen showed an image of an island engulfed in a storm of clouds swirling rapidly around it in the middle of a frozen ocean.

"Where's that place?" Tik'al asked staring at the desolate wasteland

"It's been named Demon's Isle; it's a place that's surrounded by a powerful hurricane year round, and it's completely devoid of any life."

"That doesn't look familiar."

"What about this?" she said typing a bit more, "it's a video recording from a landing party that managed to make it through the storm somehow."

The screen showed a slightly fuzzy video of several Combots traversing some snow ridden ruins, too badly damaged to make out what they once were. As they advanced to the center, the feed began to degrade slightly from time to time.

"They found a source of chaos energy being emitted from this point and found this." She said as the video advanced several minutes and resumed normal speed to show a massive black emerald floating on top of a strange looking shrine, pulsing rhythmically a low ethereal sound.

"That looks like the master emerald." Tik'al said astounded

"That's the emerald I saw when..." I trailed off for a moment to think back to the flashbacks I've had

"You've seen this thing before?" Shadow asked not really that surprised

"Not in person, but I feel like I've been to that place before." I said shaking my head from side to side

"Well it's not surprising; although I'm wondering how you remember anything since you weren't even awake when you were there." Rouge said typing up a few more commands on the keys

"What do you mean?"

"Take a look at this." She said as the image of a rounded chamber was brought into view and two large crystals were floating in columns of light above pedestals. As the camera panned across the room, several other platforms could be seen, but they lacked the same floating crystals. The Combots moved closer and the camera focused and revealed that inside the two crystals were figures, frozen in time. The camera moved in further still and showed the face of one of the beings.

"Phoenix, that looks like you." Tik'al said pointing at the frozen figure on the screen

"Well who's the other one?" Shadow said noticing what looked like a similar figure in the other ice, only with a rather large scar from the side of its face through the eye.

"That's a good question." Rouge said

"I don't know about that other one, but the first one was definitely me." I said noticing the facial features, "What am I doing frozen on some strange island? The first thing I remember when I woke up was being in a desert."

"Yeah well I've got the explanation for that too," she said pulling up a report on the screen, "There were several entries on everything that was brought back from the island, "This was one of them."

Day 1 Upon discovery of the strange island another master emerald was found along with two bodies preserved inside of separate crystalline structures inside of a shrine, the bodies were taken to the northern research and development facility for further examination.

Day 2 The tests have revealed that they were still alive and that traces of chaos energy resided within them; it is currently unknown what, if anything, they are and how they can be used to further my goals of continual domination of the planet.

Day 3 The large emerald that almost exactly resembles the master emerald on Angle Island, although the only differences are the fact that it is black and gives off a strange energy pulse that interferes with all types of machinery; I've also noticed that it affects organic Life forms as well. I've found it hard to focus when I'm around it and have decided to have the machines do the 'hands on' work with the emerald inside of a radiation shielded room.

Day 4 I've managed to determine through carbon dating that the Life forms were over several thousand years old. I've decided to try robotizizing them and use them to find and destroy the rebel base known as knothole.

Day 5 My attempts to robotozized the two creatures has ended in failure, it seems that the strange energy within them seemed to protect their bodies from the change, I've decided to go a different route, I shall remove the brain from one of them and input it into the metal sonic robot in an attempt to create a more powerful soldier in my ever growing army.

Day 6 The procedure has yielded less than satisfactory results, the brain put into metal sonic has done nothing, and I tried accessing its memory banks but was unsuccessful, as they seem to have been corrupted beyond recovery.

Day 7 Today I finally figured out what I've been doing wrong, rare the event may be. I've decided to take the remaining body and use my experimental nano-technology on it, thus simulating as much as possible the results I desire.

"Wait a minute, go back to that part about the metal sonic robot." I said recalling the fight in the forest I had with it

"What about it?" Rouge asked

"I had a fight with that thing before we first went to Angel Island." I said clenching my fist and remembering the pain from that shot in my chest

"You mean when we found those escapees from the prison?" Tik'al reminded me

"Yes, exactly." I said

"So that's what took so long for you to wander around out there." Shadow said annoyed, "I had to sneak around through that insect ridden forest for minutes."

"Well excuse me for inconveniencing you while I was fighting for my life out there." I said irritated

"Well if you're through, there's more to the report, specifically about you." She said pointing at me as another image popped into place

The surviving life form retrieved from the island was surgically engineered to be an unstoppable killing machine. Tests were run on its combat capability but all were failures, the chaos energy previously detected wasn't expressed in any way. The subject was put in a holding cell for further study but managed to escape during a security detail change. Target seemed to be drawn to the black master emerald instinctively but was managed to be recaptured. The target once again escaped but still was unstable; the hybrid technology was being rejected by the body's unique chemistry. The test subject made one last escape during a power failure and get away on a supply transport truck; further investigation of this incident revealed that the break out of the subject was instigated from an outside source. Tracing of the intrusion of the computer system was inconclusive.

"There have been strange incidents like that going on in key places within Robotnik's supposed controlled areas." Rouge said, "I've also been detecting someone hacking into his mainframe moving materials around and changing data and such."

"What's that black emerald all about?" Shadow said changing position to lie on his side

"That must have been the exact day I woke up outside in the desert, I had a truck with me and it had broken down or something." I said remembering the event

"Well I think that our mysterious hacker is the one who released you from your prison all those times." Rouge said examining more of the data on the screen

"I guess someone is looking after you." Tik'al said smiling

"I couldn't imagine who though, I don't know anyone that would have anything to gain from that."

"All this is doing is creating more questions to be answered, we're not getting anywhere."

"That's true," Rouge said closing the computer and shutting it off, "I guess it's something for another day."

"Alright, So now what do we do?" I asked

"Well we need to start getting down to the real business at hand." She said standing up and placing a hand on her hip, "All of us will have to work together to bring down Robotnik with each of our unique skills; my computer expertise and stealth, Shadow's chaos control abilities and..."

"Chaos control?" I asked puzzled

"Yeah, it's a special little ability that I'm privy to."

"And I suppose it allows you to move instantly from one place to another and makes you faster and stronger, am I right?" I asked remembering how strong the metal sonic robot was with the chaos emerald

"Yeah, among other things." He said sitting up

"You wouldn't happen to have a chaos emerald, would you?"

"No, but it's nothing you should worry about, very few are capable of such things." He said smugly

"Well then consider that select few expanded by one more." I said holding out my hands and concentrating

"What the?" Rouge exclaimed as my hands began to glow with a strange white aura and lines of energy could be seen dancing across my palms and down my arms

"It's just a little thing I'm privy to." I said relaxing as the energy went away

"Humph." Shadow said shrugging as the glow faded

"I suppose you'll be more help than I first imagined." Rouge said smiling

"What about her?" Shadow said pointing towards Tik'al

"Well as you said before I'm not much of a fighter."

"This is probably a dumb question, but have you ever shot a gun before?" Rouge asked

"I've never used a weapon of any kind before." She said timidly

"Well tomorrow I'll start teaching you, and you'll be a crack shot in no time."

"I see, so we're going to be some small elite team bringing down Robotnik's war machine and crippling his operations on all fronts, swiftly and efficiently."

"That's us, alright; lady and gentlemen welcome to the group, welcome to Razor's Edge."

Shadow merely moaned from the sound of the group name, I could hear Tik'al laugh and I just shook my head.

"Life get more interesting by the minute." I said laughing to myself


End file.
